I am starting a new series of paintings about children and war. Currently all that means is that it will have something to do with war (or with weapons of war) and how it impacts children. I’m not sure where this will take me, but the ideas have been in my head for a long time now, and I finally feel ready to start getting the images out and onto canvas.

This is the first image in the series. It’s titled “Fall”, and as soon as I can get some leaves on trees around here to change color, then I’ll be able to get some better references for the horizon line. This is an early draft. The soccer ball is just a sphere with some dots on it, and the A-10 is a bit wonky too. I think I want it pushed back a bit and I’ll figure out the best way to do that later, but this is the overall statement, and I’ll get busy iterating on it soon.

My goal is to do 5 paintings in this series and then exhibit them/enter them into contests sometime early next year. Most of them will likely be this 12x16 size in oil, but as I move along and continue to explore the ideas they may get bigger or evolve into different mediums.

This second image is an early charcoal sketch for the second painting of a child running in a hayfield while an A-10 flies in the background.

I don’t think all of the paintings will have A-10s in them, but I lived on England Air Force Base (it was in Louisiana) when I was in 2nd and 3rd grade and that base was home to the Flying Tigers and that brief period of time seeing those planes has affected my imagination ever since.