Date of the event – 9th June 2018, Len Murrell

This painting composition is based a series of photographs (25) I took on the day. Anyone who attended will recall that the aircraft, artillery, vehicles and RAF personal were spread over the High Street from The Frame Gallery, up to Lloyds Pharmacy. It required a little artistic licence to manoeuvre the subject matter into some order to create a ‘narrative’ of the occasion.

You will notice that most of the figures featured are facing the camera, this a deliberate ploy to create a balanced picture of the key characters to tell the story of the event. There is one character who is attired in the WW1 flying kit; I felt he was necessary to provide the 1918 start point for the narrative but not necessarily the point to lead the eye into the painting. I believe the eye is drawn in at the left and works round to the characters in the foreground on the right.

All the characters portrayed are true to life as are the ranks they carry, face detail is omitted. Any of them viewing the painting would recognise themselves.

The eye stops on the Spitfire to take in the detail of the young boy in the cockpit receiving instruction from an RAF Cadet. It must be remembered that the Spitfire is approximately half scale (I will stand corrected if I am wrong on this point!). With this in mind all the other features of the painting are aimed be full size to scale.

I would like to add my thanks to the RAF personnel and Cadets for their willingness to accommodate my camera pointing at them although they would not have known my objective!

For more information about Len Murrell, please contact The Gallery on 01256 7011082 or via email theframe@icloud.com.