About the artist:

Wootton was born in Milford on Sea, Hampshire in 1914. His mother died while Frank was still of school-age, and he was raised by his father, a seaman in the Merchant Navy. He attended art school in 1928 at the age of fourteen, winning a travel scholarship and a gold medal from the Eastbourne School of Art and a prize of £25, which he used to fund a three-month trip to Germany, painting murals. The late Frank Wootton can be credited with giving aviation art a bold new direction, transforming the genre from illustration to fine art. A gifted young artist when WWII broke out, Wootton volunteered for the Royal Air Force, but was invited by the commander-in-chief of the Allied Air Forces to accept a special duty commission as official war artist to the R.A.F. and Royal Canadian Air Force. Thus, between 1939 and 1945, Wootton painted the conflict from the front lines of France to remote airstrips in Southeast Asia. His aerial scenes brilliantly recreated the threat of enemy fire, the split-second maneuvers of fighter planes and the triumph of victory. After the war, Wootton’s paintings gained international recognition. His works hang in major aviation museums throughout the world, and he has painted numerous state occasions involving the R.A.F. and the Royal Family. In 1983 some fifty of his paintings were exhibited at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Following his death, Wootton remains one of aviations most widely respected artists. The inaugural of the National Air and Space Museum featured an exhibition on Wootton's work. Frank Wootton was also an extraordinary landscape and equestrian artist. His love of horses was unparalleled and he became vice-President of the Society of Equestrian Artists. He was commissioned to paint the greatest steeplechaser of all time, Arkle, in 1966 - 'Arkle with Pat Taaffe up'. He also had racehorses in training with the legendary Fred Winter. For service in World War II, Frank Wootton was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1995. He died in April of 1998, at Alfriston, Sussex.