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Two
of the paintings which Townsville artist Peter Lalor painted
of Air Force assets while out with the Army on Exercise
Katta last month. The exhibition and sale of his paintings
raised $1000 for Legacy.
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PAINTING of two Caribous landing at the Army exercise in Townsville
last month has helped raise money for Legacy.
Local artist Peter Lalor had slept on location with the 3rd Brigade
and in the morning was preparing to set up to paint Army scenes,
but an Air Force vista was the first picture he did while on
Exercise Katta.
“It was the first dramatic thing that happened to me,” he said.
“We woke very early in the morning and these two Caribous landed
at sunrise and screamed to a dusty halt right in front of me and
my paint box.”
Although an experienced painter of 40 years, he found it a challenge
to paint. “I had a very soft and subtle light of early morning
with the sun coming basically from the horizon on the left, it
was very low light.
“It was a challenge to catch the glare of that light on the side
of the Caribous in contrast with the landing lights and propellers.
“I found it quite different to any subjects I’ve worked on before
... and quite intriguing. “I did a quick sketch on location and
then took the information home, along with lots of photos, and
worked up the painting from there. I quite enjoy doing these aviation
paintings. I’ve seen some wonderful art of that type.”
The painting sold while on exhibition for three weeks at the Townsville
RSL. Its sale helped raise about $1000 for Legacy. The sketch
on which the painting was based is still for sale.
The exhibition featured 20 portraits and sketches of units at
work.
He said each painting was treated with different moods depending
on the way he saw the ambience of the scene at the time. Some
of the events he captured included live-firing at night, mortars,
soliders on sentry duty and engineers building bridges.
He also painted a hot refuel – Black Hawks sitting on the tarmac,
engines running and being refuelled.
And he portrayed four APCs rumbling along in the dusty bush. Mr
Lawson and his wife were at High Range only a month before the
exhibition. They were happy with the responses to Mr Lawson’s
work.
“There were a lot of late nights and early mornings preparing
the works,” he said. “But the people involved in the units I portrayed
loved the paintings – that made the whole experience that much
better.”
