The Trust was saddened to hear of the death of renowned aviation artist and Trust supporter Gerald Coulson, who passed away on 6 February at the age of 94.
The Fine Art Guild named Gerald as one of the top 10 best-selling UK artists no less than 15 times in 12 years and placed him at number one on three occasions.
A great supporter of the Trust, he and his wife Chris regularly attended Memorial Days at Capel-le-Ferne and Gerald invariably presented one of his prints for auction at the charity’s annual fund-raising dinners.
Entirely self-taught, Gerald painted professionally for over 47 years, building a reputation that was second to none. His work, which covered many different subjects including motor racing, aviation and the Battle of Britain, sold worldwide as both open and limited edition prints.
A childhood passion for aircraft led to an apprenticeship as an aircraft engineer, after which he served in the RAF as a technician and then with British Airways as an engineer at Heathrow. His knowledge of aircraft engineering, combined with his drawing ability, saw him become a technical illustrator of service manuals for civil and military aircraft.
A Vice-President and founder member of the Guild of Aviation Artists, Gerald won the Flight International Trophy for outstanding aviation painting four times.
Comments