| Frank
Wootton
The late Frank Wootton can be credited with giving aviation art
a bold new direction, transforming the genre from illustration
to fine art.
A gifted young artist when WWII broke out, Wootton volunteered
for the Royal Air Force, but was invited by the commander-in-chief
of the Allied Air Forces to accept a special duty commission
as official war artist to the R.A.F. and Royal Canadian Air
Force. Thus, between 1939 and 1945, Wootton painted the conflict
from the front lines of France to remote airstrips in Southeast
Asia. His aerial scenes brilliantly recreated the threat of
enemy fire, the split-second maneuvers of fighter planes and
the triumph of victory.
After the war, Wootton’s paintings gained international
recognition. His works hang in major aviation museums throughout
the world, and he has painted numerous state occasions involving
the R.A.F. and the Royal Family. In 1983 some fifty of his paintings
were exhibited at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington,
D.C. Following his death, Wootton remains one of aviations most
widely respected artists.
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