A quick browse at any postcard rack and its a fair bet you will find a painting of a Spitfire in there. Seems a bit of a cliché then to commit to adding yet another Spit to the masses when there are so many other interesting lesser depicted types to spend the time on, but the appeal is undeniable - the eternal childhood favourite and the bucket list ride is certainly a Spitfire.
The nearby Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm Museum holds a post-war example of its sea-faring sister the Seafire F17. It's an aircraft I know well from many a visit and as the colour scheme is a refreshing change to the more commonly depicted RAF brethren, it seemed a fair choice for the canvas.
After playing around researching with photos and landscape and history references I began sketching my Seafire flying toward camera (based on some of the dramatic inflight photography I'd seen of Kennet Aviation's superb flying example). Then in my eagerness I made a bit of a schoolboy history error by giddily painting in couple of Japanese Oscar fighters giving chase...
...oh wait... this Seafire is a post war model!
With the history of the Royal Navy F17 Seafire reavaluated, I now had the now lone SP352 Seafire F. XVII BR 163, sketched out on patrol around the Mediterranean where it belonged and after a few pleasurable hours behind the brushes, I had another new painting to show for it.
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