ARTWORKS
XM491 ‘Procyon’ at RAF Lyneham in the 1960s
(above) A Britannia in the Servicing Dock by the late Air Vice-Marshal Norman Hoad CVO, CBE, AFC*, GAvA
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Featured Artist 1: LANCE COLE
Bristol Britannia XM496 Preservation Society Member
Lance Cole is a man of many talents: a well-known author, illustrator, broadcaster and journalist with major newspapers. He has a parallel career in PR which includes past roles with the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund, charities, and at Government level. His childhood in West Africa and more recently in East Africa and in Australia, has given him an appreciation of colours and skies – which now feature in his paintings. His early training in art included being the pupil of the wildlife artist, Eric Ennion and his son Hugh. Further tutoring came from none other than Sir Peter Scott, who encouraged Lance to make the sky his defining hallmark. Sir Peter told Lance (then aged 17) that there was “not much” he could teach the young pupil about painting big skies. A growing passion for classic cars and aircraft (his ex-RAF grandfather flew an Auster and drove a Citroen DS), led Lance to the world of industrial design when he left school. Entering the motor industry as a car styling/illustrator apprentice, Lance’s career began in the motor industry but soon also encompassed aviation. After starting to write about design and winning the Jaguar Cars Sir William Lyons Award in 1983 as a Lyons Scholar, he began working for numerous periodicals ranging from Autocar to Flight International, followed by regular columns in the newspapers. In the 1990s, Lance worked as a foreign correspondent and reporter in Africa and Asia, covering numerous conflicts and crises, achieving major headlines in Hong Kong prior to the colony’s handover to China. He also ran a farm in Zimbabwe. Training as a PPL, part-CPL, and glider pilot, allied to race and rally driver experiences complemented his studies, as did an engineering degree and a later Ph.D. A major highlight of Lance’s flying was to be part of the crew that flew a Catalina PBY Flying-boat across East Africa. “Stick time” on the VC10 and 747 added to his knowledge base. Lance’s book about the design of the VC10 airliner, kicked off a series of books now totalling over twenty titles. Recent books covering Bugatti, Saab, and Porsche have been well received. Today, Lance provides narratives, research, illustrations and photographs to publishers and also works as a television/film production camera operator. He continues to provide PR but his main focus and pleasure is creating artworks of classic cars and classic civil and military aircraft, which he sells world-wide
“Creating a painting of XM 496 to help to preserve this wonderful British airframe and all its RAF history has been a pleasure and I can only urge everyone to help save our industrial and military heritage,” says Lance.
(Click on above images to view in large size)
Lance and Porsche 911 Turbo and his new book ‘Porsche Passion’
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Featured Artist 2: PETER OUTEN
Bristol Britannia XM496 Preservation Society Member
Peter’s original trade in the 50’s was as a professional Signwriter. He served his National Service in the RAF as a medic at RAF Lyneham, where his love of the Bristol Britannia began. Peter’s artistic talent was realised by the Station hierarchy while he was doing his National Service and was seconded from his trade as a medical orderly to being a major artist in the painting of a large map of the world on a wall of the new Operations Building at RAF Lyneham. This map became the focal point for all the flight planning of the operational tasks and is featured in a number of films made of RAF Transport Command and RAF Lyneham. On demobilization he worked in a London Commercial Artwork studio as a Lettering Artist, and went on to become a Studio Manager. In the mid 60’s he was a founding partner of TRP Studio, a full pre-press artwork service to London Advertising Agencies. With the advent of computers in the 80’s Peter retired from the commercial artwork world and returned to Signwriting. His main claim to fame was lettering by hand the names of the Garter Knights from 1349 to 1995 onto the restored oak panelling in St. George’s Hall following the great fire at Windsor Castle in 1992, for which he received a personal accolade from Her Majesty the Queen. Now in his 80’s he has taken up oil painting as a hobby – the beautiful“Whispering Giant” was of course his first attempt at Aviation Art. (See below)
“Regulus Whispering to the Angels” by Peter Outen
“Regulus Romps Home – In Uniform” by Peter Outen
…and continuing the theme of Transport Command
“Sagittarius In Cruise Control” by Peter Outen
( Transport Command de Havilland C.2 Comet XK699 at altitude )
“Hastings Off To Battle” by Peter Outen
( Handley Page Hastings C.1 TG551 outbound for Nicosia )
Signwriter ‘Extraordinaire’
Peter very kindly made this sign to display outside ‘Regulus’ giving a brief history of the aircraft
The dog, sadly, was not included with the package!
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A ‘copy’ painting of ‘Regulus Romps Home – In Uniform’ that was generously donated by Peter to the Society specifically to help raise funds for the ‘Paint Fund’
‘Regulus Romps Home – In Uniform 2’
