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American Air Force Mural Featuring the Spirit of Aerial Combat

© the copyright holder. Image credit: Clipston Endowed VC Primary School

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Sergeant Peter Sanders was an instructor at the night gunnery school set up by the USAAF at the Harrington Airfield, Northamptonshire, during the Second World War. The school was housed in an empty hanger and, Sergeant Sanders later explained, “Our Officer asked me if I could come up with a design or a spot of colour on the open area wall that might brighten up the place – something appropriate”. He made a colour sketch to scale, placed it in a projector and focussed it onto plywood fixed to the wall, then traced the image with charcoal. Unable to get oil paint in Kettering, he had to settle for poster paint. He said, “The poster paint, of course, would not blend on the board so I painted it poster style.” The central figure represents the Spirit of Aerial Combat.

Clipston Endowed VC Primary School

Clipston

Title

American Air Force Mural Featuring the Spirit of Aerial Combat

Date

1945

Medium

poster paint on board

Measurements

H 213.5 x W 315.5 cm

Accession number

1

Acquisition method

gift from the artist, 1945

Work type

Painting

Clipston Endowed VC Primary School

High Street, Clipston, Leicestershire LE16 9RU England

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