Aviation art by aviation artist Frank
Wootton. Aviation art prints of Hawker Typhoons, Mosquito, Royal Air Force
Tornado and Avro Lancaster by aviation artist Frank Wootton, available
from Cranston Fine Arts, the military art print company.
Bader Bale Out by Frank Wootton.
On the 9th of August 1941, Group Captain Douglas Bader was leading his Wing of Spitfires from Tangmere over France just south of Le Touquet at 28,000 feet, when he sighted twelve Messerschmitts ahead and below. Being in the ideal position, he dived to the attack, but his excessive speed carried him right through the German formation. Pulling out at 24,000 feet, he encountered six more Messerschmitts and shot one of them down, but the rest turned on him furiously. He felt something hit his aircraft, which slewed violently round and began to spiral down at frightening speed. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that the entire rear part of his Spitfire behind the cockpit had been shorn away. He jettisoned the canopy and began to bale out. At this critical moment, his artificial right leg became trapped, and the upper half of his body was pinned against the fuselage by the fierce slipstream. After a struggle, he succeeded in tearing himself free, leaving his right leg behind as he le.........
Strike Wing Attack - Beaufighter by Frank Wootton.
Coastal Command Strike Wings by Neil Wheeler
It was not until ten years ago that the first detailed account appeared recording the achievements and sacrifices of the Beaufighter anti-shipping Strike Wings. Surprisingly, these important and, as a whole, very successful activites semmed to have been forgotten in the years immediately after the war. Until 1942 the attack of enemy shipping, particularly that to and from Dutch ports and North German and Scandinavian ports, ahd been carried out in the main by individual attacks by bomber aircraft, at times with considerable losses. The concept of using a Wing of Beaufighters, with two squadrons to suppress enemy anti-aircraft fire and one with torpedoes to sink the ships in the convoy, gradually developed in 1942. Unfortunately, the first strike on 20th November 1942 was disastrous, largely through failure to rendezvous with the fighter escort, the casualties were heavy and the results poor. The Wing was not to operate again unti.........
RAF Tornado- Operation Desert Storm 1991 by Frank Wootton.
at 2200 GMT on 16th January 1991 Tornados were launched from Dhahran, Bahrain and Tabuk on the RAFs first combat missions in Operation Desert Storm. Each Tornado was loaded with two JP23s and all were bound for airfields in Iraq. Taking the defences by complete surprise, the Tornados delivered their weapons over runways and taxiways, then made for home without loss, setting a standard of professionalism that was to be maintained throughout the campaign often in the face of far more serious opposition. The air campaign in which the RAF were engaged was crucial to the Allies overall strategy to free Kuwait. Indeed, it is not an exaggeration to say that for the first time in the history of warfare, air power was the determining factor in a major conflict, and that the visions of such men as Trenchard and Harris were at last demonstrated. While the final conclusions must be left to history, the Gulf war remains - as General McPeak, the US Air Force Chief of Staff pointed out - the fir.........
A first-hand account of the sinking of the Tirpitz by Bob Knights. - The early morning of 12th November 1944 was clear and very cold, and the wings of the Lancasters of 617 Squadron, parked on the airfield at RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland, were coated with ice. This ice had to be removed before the aircraft could take off for the final attack on the Tirpitz, the Lancasters were already overloaded with a 12,00lb Tallboy, full petrol tanks, and a reserve fuel tank in the fuselage. The aircraft had been fitted with more powerful engines, the Rolls-Royce Merlin 24, and take-off performance was surprisingly good. After turning out over the Moray Firth, we set course north east for the Norwegian sea at 1500 feet. We saw the Shetland Islands pass by on our left, and when we reached 64 degrees north we turned eastwards towards the Norwegian coast at low level. We crossed the coast, climbing rapidly to clear mountains, and flew over the Swedish border. We then turned north and, keeping on the Swe.........
Signed by five famous airmen including Air Chief Marshal Sir Harry
Broadhurst, Wing Commander R P Beamont, Wing Commander M R Ingle-Finch,
Group Captain Sir Hugh Dundas, Air Marshal Sir Denis Crowley-Milling.
The Sinking of the Tirpitz by Frank Wootton
Also signed by five 617 squadron Aircraft captains on the raid
including Group Captain "Willie" Tait DSO, DFC, ADC.
RAF Tornado- Operation Desert Storm 1991 by Frank Wootton
Countersigned by Air Vice Marshal Sir William Wratten
KBE, CB, AFC.
Strike Wing Attack - Beaufighter by Frank Wootton
Also signed by five leading strike wing pilots, including Air Chief
Marshal Sir Neil Wheeler GCB, CBE, DSO, DFC, AFC.
Mosquito by Frank Wootton
Also signed by five famous airmen including Group Captain John
Cunningham DSO and Air Vice Marshal Sir Ivor Broom KBE, CBE, DSO.
Rocket Firing Typhoons at the Falaise Gap - Normandy
1944 by Frank Wootton
Signed by nine pilots :
Group
Captain Charles Green DSO, DFC; Air Commodore W Bill Pitt-Brown DFC; Air
Commodore C D Kit North-Lewis DSO, DFD; Air Commodore J W Forst CBE, DFC,
DL; Squadron Leader Percy H Beake DFC; Squadron Leader Geoff Murphy;
Flight Lieutenant Roy Crane; Flight Lieutenant George Sheppard; Flight
Lieutenant Ken Adam OBE; Flight Lieutenant Ramsay Milne.
Anthony Gibbs was born in 1951 in Birmingham. He went to Bourneville School of Art for one year, but is mostly self-taught. His first one man show was in 1976 at the Colmore Galleries, with further one man exhibitions at this venue following, in 1977, 1978, 1981, 1983, 1988 and 1991. Anthony Gibbs had a one man exhibition Nature In Art at Wallsworth Hall, Gloucestershire in 2000. His first limited edition print released February 1988 - White Tigers Ever Watchful – was an edition of 1550, the largest edition of a limited print by Solomon and Whitehead at the time, and the largest order from the from the USA (650) they have ever had. He went to Kenya for the first time in February 1989, and is a member of the Society of Animal Artists in New York, The Woodland Trust. He won the Peoples Choice Award on a national tour exhibition of the USA in 1992 and 1993, with the Society of Animal Artists. Anthony Gibbs was awarded the Award of Excellence Medal from the Society in 1997 and 2001. He has exhibited at numerous venues across the USA with the Society of Animal Artists and also across Britain – exhibitions including the Mall Galleries, Nature In Art, Wildfowl And Wetlands Trust, London. He has sold work through both Christies and Sotherbys. Anthony Gibbs went to the Yellowstone National Park and Tetons National Park to study the wildlife and habitat in the U.S.A. in 2003.
Spotlight on Wildlife Artists
A newly available selection of superb wildlife art from some of the best known wildlife artists around.
A large variety of wildlife prints are now available from artists including Jonathon Truss, Anthony Gibbs and Lyndsey Selley. These prints are available at a discount price for a short time only, and some are on the verge of selling out. See the best of the prints by clicking the links or see more wildlife art at our website devoted to the subject : ArtAndPrints.co.uk
