painting, Air to Ground
Report a Mistake- Object Number 19710261-1874
- Event 1939-1945 Second World War
- Affiliation --
- Artist / Maker / Manufacturer Cowley-Brown, Flight Lieutenant Patrick George
- Date Made 1945
- Category Communication artifacts
- Sub-category Art
- Department Art and Memorials
- Museum CWM
- Earliest 1945/01/01
- Latest 1945/12/31
- Inscription Recto; lower right, in blue paint: COWLEY BROWN 45 (BROWN and 45 underlined); verso, on stretcher; upper centre; fragments of typed paper label: "AIR TO GROUND" - Oil 24" x 32"; R.C.A.F. Station Patrica Bay, label missing, ? leted Painting - 19 Sept. - 10 Oct 1945; illegible. This ground target is sit, illegible, small group of rocks on ? on, label missing ? gia. The target is the shape of an; label missing e wing and is so place - label missing - down the channel on the lea of the; - label missing - when, at a suitable ra - label missing - e red traces were used. Foreground - ; - label missing - arget. Middle distance - label missing - turret. DISTANCE - A Ventura has; - label missing - xercise and is going - label missing - ; wn); On right fragment of label, in red marker:/43; in black pen: P.G. COWLEY - BROWN. F/L. paper label: Artist F/L P. G. Cowley - Brown; Title AIR TO GROUND; Property of; Return address The National Gallery; of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario; Insurance Value $; in black felt pen: Acc: 11078; right centre, in blue pencil crayon: 139; left and right centre, in graphite: 24
- Medium oil
- Support canvas
- Materials Not applicable
- Service Component Royal Canadian Air Force
- Measurements Height 61.3 cm, Width 81.3 cm
- Caption Air to Ground, 1945
- Additional Information Patrick Cowley-Brown enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in March 1941 and trained as a wireless air gunner. He won the 1944 RCAF Art Competition in which Peter Whyte came second, and was subsequently appointed an official war artist. His task was to depict the west coast RCAF stations and the Canada-U.S. Alaska Highway, a huge project undertaken to provide a land route for military supply of the isolated American territory. "I enjoyed almost total freedom of movement.... The on-the-spot sketches were done selectively and quickly... On my return to Ottawa, I would submit my field sketches to the Air Historian. Suggestions and recommendations were made as to the development of certain ones into easel paintings.... I followed a regular daily routine in Ottawa. There was not the sense of immediacy or urgency to be found on the stations. I worked in a much more relaxed manner; had the time to reflect on my experiences in the field and to feel my way comfortably into the larger canvasses."