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Featuring the Aviation Art of Jack Fellows

Like the comparatively limited number of books published on WWII Pacific versus Europe, it seems that most aviation artists focus on the more mainstream and well know topics of Europe only.  Very few artists have painted pacific aviation scenes. 

There is one exception:  Jack Fellows.  Painting since 1967, his award wining works are examples of fine art in their own right, and renown in the aviation art circles for their attention to detail and comprehensive research.  But, his works had never appeared together, in a single book.

This hardcover volume features each painting, depicted as a full page, with the opposite leaf dedicated to the history and wartime photographs associated with that painting.  The book's historical and paintings spans the duration of American aviation involvement in Pacific: from Pearl Harbor thru the Atomic bomb.   Most of the paintings have never before been available or published, so each page is both a new page in history and work of art.

The research into each painting is meticulous, including the historical research by Robert Rocker and aerial photograph of the actual locations, including contributions from Richard Leahy in New Guinea. Some of the artistic revisions and comments from surviving veterans are depicted as well.

The book begins with excellent introduction by Col. Walter Boyne, that touches on how most books and documentaries about the Pacific war draw upon the important, but familiar images of the war, from the attack on Pearl Harbor to the surrender on the Missouri. He introduces the paintings of Fellows, as works that tell the large stories of aviation in the Pacific, and the heroes of Army, Navy and Marine aviation.  Depicting everything from famous dogfights, aces, and less glamorous but equally vital scenes of bomber pilots, patrol aircraft, and transport planes in action.

Fellows' spectacular paintings bring scenes of air combat to life that have never before been depicted, covering American and also, some of the Japanese aviation events.  For anyone that is a fan of fine aviation art, or Pacific history, this book is a must. Also, his paintings related to 345th Bomb Group B-25 strafer appear in Warpath Across the Pacific