Who is this R. Adkins Guy ?
I only knew him as Mr. Aikins for all those many years his gifted son David came to me as an art student and eventually as an employee. David will be the feature of another blog as I am so proud of his art achievements. Back to Mr. Aikins … or Bob as I can now call him.
When jurying a show I most often only see the art entrees on a small computer screen or projected on a wall and I usually don’t see the names of the artists. I did however look at Bob’s three submissions glanced at the signature and asked, “Who is this Adkins guy and are these photographs ? “One of the art commissioners helping me said,”I don’t know “. So I thought if these are paintings I have to see them up close and personal.
When the originals were all assembled for the jurying of the awards the first thing I heard when I walked in the room was “we might have a problem.” Pointing to Bob’s paintings my helper said, “these might be prints made from photographs”… “They are so flat and photographic.”
I have seen my own children’s book illustrations printed on canvas and I couldn’t believe how rich the color and how much it looked like I painted them on the canvas. The only “give-away” was that they are very flat and void of brushstrokes.
Enter “R.Aikins” and his “ultra-photographic-insanely-flat-paintings” we quickly decided that these were photos printed on canvas and enhanced with transparent oils … WRONG !!! I asked Bob to send me a paragraph describing his art …
“I have been involved in aviation art for 14 years. When I started, I had never painted with oils…..in my 35 years designing cars at Ford (before computers), we used gouache and acrylics for illustrating our design proposals. Oil paints represented a new challenge and I soon came to like the slow drying times as it gave me a chance to review and revise my paintings. I like to use thin layers of oils, letting them dry and then slowly building up the values and colors. The end results are almost a photographic effect devoid of brush strokes. Not a style I would recommend for everyone, but for the very detailed world of aviation art it seems to work just fine!”
Umm , “almost photographic” ? he said … Let me here say that they are DEFINITELY PHOTOGRAPHIC ! At the Artists Reception I further realized that R.Adkins” was really Mr. Aikins, Dave’s dad !!! Feeling guilty about not awarding him a higher award than “Honorable Mention” I further explained that his level of illustration and even the topic of Aviation Art just doesn’t seem to fit into a fine arts show. I simply didn’t know what to do with this art and I didn’t even know if it was art or enhanced photography .
Please take a moment to appreciate this super talented artist and his amazing illustrations … Needless to say he wins many awards in the Aviation Art world. Please visit www.AikinsAviationArt.com
Great job Dad! Hi Dave!
it was so great seeing your Dad . So how is the other half of the Deane & Dave show ?… I loved having you guys as students and now friends