Painting Hiroshima, by Ron Cole

He said he wanted to see the destruction of the city; the shock wave moving out from ground zero, with buildings and homes in front of it and pulverized ruins behind. Seriously? I thought to myself, How can I undertake this commission? 

I'm not overly sensitive regarding violence and I'm not partisan nor political about my art, but I've always seen my art as a celebration on some level. When I do paint war - and lets face it, I end up painting war a lot in my genre' - I avoid the most potentially disturbing moments and try to focus more upon the machines and the men; a mood and a nostalgia. Many veterans over the years have remarked that they like my work for that very reason. In the past I enjoyed the support of many World War II veterans who chose to autograph my work after they'd rejected offers from other artist to do the same for them. I've always felt that painting for these men, as their generation passes away, keeps their spirits alive for ensuing generations. That's celebratory.  

When Japanese billionaire industrialist Nobuo Harada's representative first approached me about the project, I was rather shocked. It was my second commissioned piece for him, and ultimately his museum in Tokyo. When Nobuo-san directly told me what he wanted to see, the challenge of it was enough to plague me. There was no way to celebrate that moment. A person can be abstract about it and think of it as an end to an even more brutal war; it ultimately saved millions of lives and so on. But a painting is a still snapshot that doesn't reveal context like that. I'd have to paint the deaths of 100,000 people and have it say something at face value.

Harada was very specific regarding the composition. I didn't have much to say about it. The focus was to be the mushroom cloud with the B-29 bomber, Enola Gay, as a secondary element. Right away I searched to see how other artists had depicted it in history. Short answer: with subtlety or outright omission. Some artists only depicted the aircraft. Others painted a mushroom cloud in the far distance, the city tactfully obscured by overcast. One painter created two versions of the same painting, one with the mushroom cloud and one without. Clever. Options that I did not have. At least I knew I wasn't alone in my conflict regarding the subject. Then I made a choice that I felt, once I'd made it, was the only thing that should be done: 

Reveal the horror. Let that stand on its own. Don't even try to gloss it over. Doing so would be the greatest injustice. 

The base of the mushroom cloud - the city of Hiroshima - is in full view as Nobuo-san specified. After having read everything I could find on the behavior of the bomb as it detonated and impacted the surrounding area, I wasn't able to both depict the cloud and the shock waves (there were two: one from the blast and the other from the wave hitting the ground and bouncing back). I rendered the smoke and fire at the base of the cloud with a specific word in mind: Sickly. The color of the cloud briefly went through a 'reddish' phase as it rose into the air. Combining that with the yellow-orange from the fires created that 'look'. And it is scientifically accurate. The crew of the Enola Gay described the low smoke over the city as 'bubbling', which I've portrayed here as well. 

Nothing celebratory in any of it - but that's the entire point. 

Nobuo Harada was very pleased with the piece, and it is currently on display alongside the previous works I've created for him. Hundreds of Japanese see it every day. I don't know what their reactions are to it, but I think that I did the subject fair justice. No politics. Just . . . it. 

I don't advertise this painting in any of my stores (it's available only by special order). 

I do invite my readers to visit my web store, however. I have over 150 other compositions available:

ColesAircraft.com  

    

- Ron Cole

  5/17/1016     

 

 

   

Ron Cole's Warbird Relic Displays: Origins and FAQ

The simple question has always been: how to breath old history into new artwork. The aviation art genre' is about history and its preservation within the paintings that we, as the artists, create. But no matter how beautiful and accurate our works - they are still new paint, new inks, new papers and new frames, ultimately hung upon new walls by people who seek to connect with the past. By themselves that can only go so far.

Since not long after World War II, a new hobby arose among people with an interest in the history of that conflict and who lived in the areas most afflicted by it. In Europe it became popular to search for wartime aircraft crash sites. Armed with metal detectors, loss reports, and sometimes eye-witness accounts, these new archaeologists set out into areas that were sometimes as accessible as their own backyards, or as remote as the middle of Ukraine swampland. And they came home, usually, with buckets of metal. Real history. In many cases it was then a matter of detective work; finding serial numbers, connecting the aircraft with its crew, its unit, the day and circumstances of its loss - usually in combat. Amazing pictures of these historical moments were formulated in that way, but the buckets of metal typically sat in sheds, unable to really speak for themselves.
   

Who has heard the cliche', If these things could only talk? Another cliche' comes to mind, Show don't tell. My artwork showed a story. The pieces of metal represented real and amazing history that people could physically touch. By bringing all of these elements together with my artwork I felt that I could create things that were very special, unique, and make them available to virtually anyone. I wouldn't price them too high (Some for as low as $50). I'd use modern and user-friendly online store environments to sell them: https://coles-aircraft.myshopify.com.

Perfect!

I released my first 'relic displays' in 2008. Since then I've offered more than 60 different displays that collectively chronicle all theaters and most aircraft types. More recently I've moved into more modern subjects as well, such as my F-104 Starfighter displays. There will be many more new editions to come.

Of course, there are some frequently ask questions that I've become accustomed to addressing:

Authenticity: Unlike pilot autographs and similar adornments, these pieces of metal are actually very hard to 'fake' or misrepresent. People build huge egos upon their knowledge of what these wartime aircraft were painted - and almost all of my relic pieces retain some of their original wartime paint and possess all of the expected age-related elements and damage. Perhaps more important, everything I acquire comes from well known and vetted sources: known aviation archaeologists, museum collections or restoration shops. If I can't be confident, I won't put my good name to it. One error means more than a thousand successes. I know that, and guarantee everything I offer.

War graves: Understandably touchy and important. In all but a couple of cases, all of the combat loss aircraft that I offer displays for were lost under circumstances where the crew survived. One of those exceptions is my Lt. Bill Lacey P-51B display. In that case, the parts originated with the well known archaeologist Christiaan Vanhee. Bill was killed in the crash of his aircraft over Normandy, though removed from the site at the time in 1944. Before I offered parts of his P-51 in my displays I met with his surviving sister, presented her with a large piece of his aircraft, my painting of it, and obtained her blessing to memorialize her brother's memory through my work. I have found such sentiment to be universal among the veterans that I've come to know and their relatives. As a result I'm absolutely confident that I'm doing their memories a great service by offering parts of their valor to new generations to be preserved indefinitely in their homes.

  
I'm always in search of new ideas, subject requests, and of course parts of amazing aerial machines. I invite everyone to contact me and to visit my Blog and website:

Ron Cole
Contact: ColesAircraft@yahoo.com
Phone: 330.883.2493
Website: ColesAircraft.com
Blog: http://colesaircraft.blogspot.com