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WELCOME to the ASAA gallery of John Best. With a lifelong interest in all aircraft matters, including modeling of both aircraft and ships, John has been drawing and painting for as long as he can remember, though he has never had any formal art training. Involved in the Queensland Air Museum since its inception in 1974, he has been recording markings and stencils, as well as producing paintings of the exhibit aircraft. Select examples of Brian's artwork from the list at left, below. |
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ARTIST PROFILE: JOHN BEST Born in 1939, my whole life has revolved around my interests in aircraft, art and modelling, which I believe was a result of my early childhood experiences. At the start of WW2, my father was brought back from RAAF Point Cook to work on Defence Road construction in Central Queensland, so I spent the first five years of my life living in tents in Allied Works Council controlled camps. The only books I had access to during this period were of the latest warplanes. My first close encounter with an actual aircraft was in December 1944 when my father took me through a burnt out Dakota at Rockhampton airport. I still have vivid memories of excitedly picking up large blobs of melted aircraft metal. By this time, and knowing a little of the outside world, my passion for drawing anything and everything, as well as making model aeroplanes and ships had developed (and is still there). Growing up, I used to enter the Fine Arts section of the annual Rockhampton Show, but was disappointingly unable to study art at High School (as it required me to also study domestic science), and so have never had any formal training in the subject. Becoming a Civil Engineer, my whole professional life, from 1962 to 2005, was spent in the Bridge Design Branch of the Main Roads Department, Queensland. On a personal note, I was able to partially satisfy some of my artistic frustrations through the production of countless numbers of bridge design and repair sketches over these 43 years. In 1974 the Queensland Air Museum (QAM) was established, an event which gave me an incentive to start painting aircraft. Having helped pull apart a Canberra bomber at Amberley, I came to the conclusion that my mechanical skills were somewhat lacking, so I concentrated on more "arty" activities after that. I became a self appointed recorder of markings and stencil messages on our aircraft, an activity which was to be of future use in the repainting of planes, both at the museum and up at Amberley. Finding myself with easy access to actual aeroplanes, I decided to also try and produce a painting of each as it appeared in service. Considerable research was often required to do this, as well as to provide a historically accurate background. The non-QAM aircraft I paint are generally the result of a personal contact or of an emotive issue, such as the tragedy of the TSR.2. John Best - August 2006 |
| ©2009 Australian Society Of Aviation Artists Inc. Material on this website cannot be reproduced without the written permission of the Society. Copyright is held in all works of art, photography and other media by the respective artists. |