Current Exhibition

David Bryant

Military and Aviation Fine Artist

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4th June - 1st July

From the age of seven, David  has been captivated by everything to do with our aviation history during the war. It happened one day when a formation of aircraft he had never seen before flew over his home in Deal in Kent. His Father, who had been a London lad, was quite shocked as he had been evacuated quite late after the bombing had started and it brought back memories of that time. He later explained that they had been filming the movie ‘Battle of Britain and the aircraft we had seen had been of the very type he had so feared during the war. In fact, the ‘Buchon’ Messerschmidt 109s had been stationed for a while at nearby Battle of Britain airfield, RAF Manston. David was hooked… and started to read anything he could get his hands on about his new heroes; Johnny Johnson, Bob Stanford Tuck, Adolph Galland, Peter Townsend; great names that resonate with him just as much now as they did all those years ago. He would not have believed at the time that the pursuit of his art would lead to my meeting some of these great men.

David had a wonderful childhood with the open countryside within half a mile of his home and the sea half a mile in the opposite direction. Along with his brothers, he wandered the lanes on his bike and he became aware of a growing appreciation for the Kent countryside. David  loves skies, and often would daydream about flying in his own Spitfire (and it was always a Spitfire) amongst the fair-weather cumulus. He also recognised the history that was everywhere around him, from the cleared stretches of ground where buildings had been destroyed, to the ponds that had formed in bomb craters in some of the woods and fields. 

David did not know it at the time, but all of this would one day emerge in his art work. He always found time for the artistic endeavour and started by copying drawings from the ‘Commando’ picture books available everywhere at that time. David says 'There was a wonderful old second-hand shop just at the end of my road and a lovely old fella used to sell me second-hand copies of these, as well as setting aside any ‘paperbacks’ about my heroes of the air that he might have acquired'. David was developing an embryonic talent for drawing and proceeded to cover all his school books in pictures of Spitfires and Hurricane; Heinkels and Messerschmidt's, many of them copied from these books and magazines.  'This didn't always make my teachers very happy, but many of them had been in the military, so there was a grudging tolerance of it most of the time' says David. He also built scale models, like so many lads of his generation and saved my money avidly, so he could make a trip to Franklin’s model shop in Deal, a place of near worship for him. Bewitched by the box art of legendary artists like Roy Cross of Airfix, David vowed one day to perhaps be able to paint something approaching the quality that man could produce. He made models of all the aircraft that were involved in the Battle of Britain and made, to his young eyes, a diorama of them on his sideboard top. Reminiscing, David said 'I even got my Dad to paint my ceiling light blue and strung models up in mock combat in my make-believe sky. Cotton wool became smoke and tissue paper painted red and yellow became flame; I even heated up a needle to create bullet holes in the sides of (always German) aircraft. I also realised that I could use the models as a basis for my drawing of aircraft from any angle, useful experience for my work in years to come'.

However, as David grew older, he became distracted by the many challenges and obligations that occur in the process of building a career as an optician and bringing up a young family. He never lost his fascination for the subject though and always found himself drawn back to his boyhood obsession. He had always loved to draw and started to develop his abilities in oil painting and studied the techniques necessary to render faithfully the machines and the men that flew them. Part of the joy of this for David has always been the research necessary to get all of the little details right. After all, the enthusiasts out there who view mhis work often have an encyclopaedic knowledge of their own. He will often consult others in his quest to render as faithfully as he can these momentous events; 'the subjects demands nothing less, says David.  

More recent developments in David's career allowed him the flexibility to focus more on his art and to explore fresh avenues. He has always had huge respect for our armed forces and wanted to reflect his regard for them by fundraising for military charities and painting for individual units. David says 'When I look back, I was so lucky to be in a profession where I earned enough that I did not need to depend on my art to make a living. This made it easy to offer my services on a pro bono basis. It’s hard to understate the privilege of rubbing shoulders with today's fighting men and women and sometimes travelling with them to collect the information necessary to create a true reflection of their difficult and hazardous duties. Travels to Germany, Estonia and Afghanistan, as well as numerous places in Britain, have been made possible by the cooperation of so many people. Experiences such as this are available to few in the civilian world and I count myself as fortunate to have been blessed with the opportunities afforded to me by our wonderful service people'.

David is retired now and finally, can concentrate on on his creative endeavours without limit or compromise and is in the process of building a commercial career,  David says 'I look forward to the years to come with anticipation that I can only describe as joyful'.