Lightning

10 x 22, mixed media on resin board.

As a founding member of the Oklahoma Aviation Artists Association and having been raised an Air Force brat, I love planes. This P-38 Lightning is detailed in mid-'44 scheme, from the liberation of France, still bearing its invasion stripes. Its nose art was fun, despite its 1/4-inch size, a pretty girl in a champagne glass, with "wine, women, and song" in French above. I did a separate painting of the nose art, very Vargas'esque, on watercolor board.

The background actually draws from flights between thunderheads, flying at night off Guam. I thrilled at the sudden light, outlining the clouds for brief instants.

The background was handled a bit impressionistically, in acrylics, on a dark resin-impregnated board, and the plane was added in alkyds. All while looking at a model I'd built 20 years earlier...

Detail at: [link]
Copyright W.J. Hodgson, all rights reserved.