Co-signed by 8 Doolittle Raiders
“Aviation was my first artistic love,” says William S. Phillips, “but my true, enduring love remains my Christian faith, home and family. So it is my pleasure to combine all of it in my work. The historical aviation subjects, I research; the contemporary and nostalgic subjects, I live.”
Phillips grew up loving art but never thought he could make it his livelihood. At college he majored in criminology, and he had been accepted into law school when four of his paintings were sold at an airport restaurant. That was all the incentive he needed to begin his work as a fine art painter.
Bill Phillips is now the aviation artist of choice for many American heroes and the nostalgic landscape artist of choice for many collectors. Bill’s strengths as a landscape painter are what gave him an edge in the aviation field: respect and reverence for a time and place. When one sees his aviation pieces, thoughts are about the courageous individuals who risked their lives for our freedom. In Bill’s nostalgic works, the viewer understands fully what that freedom is... the precious values that make life worth living.
After one of his paintings was presented to King Hussein of Jordan, Phillips was commissioned by the Royal Jordanian Air Force. He developed sixteen major paintings, many of which now hang in the Royal Jordanian Air Force Museum in Amman. The Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum presented a one-man show of Phillips’ work in 1986; he is one of only a few artists to have been so honored.
In 1988, Phillips was chosen to be a U.S. Navy combat artist. For his outstanding work, the artist was awarded the Navy’s Meritorious Public Service Award and the Air Force Sergeants Association’s Americanism Medal. In 1991, three of Phillips’ works were chosen as part of the top 100 in “Art for the Parks,” the prestigious annual fund-raiser for the National Park Service, and one painting received the “Art History Award” from the National Park Foundation.
William S. Phillips Signed & Numbered Limited Edition Print "Westbound: A Date with the General"
“When we get to Chunking, I’m going to give you all a party that you won’t forget,” was Lt. Colonel James Doolittle’s promise to the 16 B-25 crews aboard the USS Hornet a few days before their historic air raid on Japan. By late afternoon on April 18th, 1942 the relative safety of the China coast was all that Lt. Donald G. Smith’s crew had on their minds. The 15th aircraft (# 40-2267) to leave the carrier’s deck had bombed its targets in Kobe, Japan but the crewmen knew they’d never make their designated landing strip on the Chinese mainland. The weather had become increasingly worse and visibility had dropped to zero. Lt. Smith was forced to ditch his bomber off an island on the Chinese Coast near Sangchow.
All of Aircraft 15’s crew would eventually make their way to Chunking but sixteen of the other Doolittle’s Raiders did not. Doolittle himself would rise to the rank of full General. It is the stuff of aviator legend that when the last Raider makes his final flight westward into the day’s fading light he will be greeted by his fellow Raiders and the General, and they will have a party never to be forgotten.
When Bill Phillips painted The Giant Begins to Stir, he embarked on an artist’s journey that grew to become a visual history of the United States’ response to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor: Lieutenant Colonel Jimmy Doolittle’s air raid on Japan launched, for the first time ever, from the sea. The Greenwich Workshop limited edition of The Giant Begins to Stir (co-signed by surviving Doolittle Raiders) was followed by I Could Never Be So Lucky Again (co-signed by Jimmy Doolittle) and Evasive Action at Sagami Bay, (co-signed by surviving Doolittle Raiders.) The final painting in this series is Westbound: A Date with the General, illustrates the dramatic flight of Lt. Smith’s Crew #15. The limited edition print and canvas will be signed by Doolittle Raiders survivors.
“Why chronicle any historical event?” asks artist Bill Phillips. Because paintings like Westbound: A Date with the General, he says, “help us to understand the times in which we live. Remembering the sacrifices of brave men and women help us to be more aware of how we should view this great country and the freedoms we so often take for granted.”
In an interesting aside, Bill Phillips’ father, a character actor in Los Angeles in the 1940s and ’50s, played a pilot in the film 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, as well as in Dive Bomber, and as Sergeant Kirby in A Yank in Korea.
This 22" by 25-11/16" Image Size Limited Edition Print, edition size 300, is signed by the artist and co-signed by the following 8 Doolittle Raiders:
Lt. Colonel Richard E. Cole - Co-Pilot 1st Aircraft David J. Thatcher - Engineer Gunner 7th Aircraft Thomas Griffin - Navigator 9th Aircraft MSgt. Edwin Horton, Jr. - Gunner 10th Aircraft Colonel William Bowers - Pilot 12th Aircraft Lt. Colonel Edward Saylor - Engineer Gunner 15th Aircraft Maj. Gen. David M Jones - Pilot 5th Aircraft Charles J. Ozuk Jr - Navigator 3rd Aircraft
Also available in the following format:
35" by 30" Limited Edition Canvas, limited to 200 - $1295.00
All Limited Edition prints are signed and numbered (S/N) by the artist. Limited Edition prints are restricted to a certain number. For example, if 400 prints are made from an original painting, once they’re gone, that’s it. There is no limit to the number of open edition prints of a particular painting. That’s why Limited Edition prints are more expensive — and more valuable to collectors — than "open" edition. Rare objects are more valuable.
All Limited Edition artwork is subject to availability at time of order. Although seller strives to remain currrent as to inventory, seller reserves the right to cancel a sale if item is no longer available at time of purchase.
Not logged in
Login Status