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These hyper-real, Pop Art-style images of aircraft and many others ‑ painted in such intimate detail they would resemble photographs were it not for their surreal edge ‑ are the work of David Bent, 71, one of Britain’s greatest living artists specialising in aviation and the painter most closely associated with the Red Arrows display team. 

Since first visiting the Royal International AirTattoo with his camera in 2003, where he was inspired to create his first innovative aviation collection ‑ the Aerobots series of collages made from cut-up photos ‑ Bent has created a peerless body of work. Sought after by test pilots and art collectors alike, his paintings are exhibited around the world. 

But with the Air Tattoo cancelled for the second time this year due to Covid, a post-lockdown exhibition in the Cotswolds town of Tetbury in Gloucestershire is the first opportunity in several years for fans to see his art in public.

Growing up in Dover, Kent, Bent, a professional artist since 1987, admits to being aviation-mad. His interest comes from his father. 

“My dad Ray was a typical aviation nutcase of his generation, he was a brilliant aero-modeller and aircraft was a subject we just connected over,” he explains.

“Dad was a very modest bloke but he was also very brilliant. His passion was model making and he started with a friend the Dover model aeroplane making club. They flew their aircraft behind the castle on the white cliffs. My brother Roger and I used to fetch and carry their model aeroplanes.”

Despite joining the air cadets at school, his interest in aviation remained a hobby until 2003.

“I flew in the cadets but I’m not a flyer unless heading off on holiday,” he smiles. 

“Using aviation in my art work only really emerged when a friend asked if I fancied going to the Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford.

“I took my camera and photographed straight up the noses of the static aircraft. I had duplicate prints made and began to experiment with these back in the studio. 

“Unexpectedly, a series of robot-type images emerged, transforming into these anthropomorphic creatures that we titled The Aerobots. Each one has its own character.”

The following year, with his wife Carole, the former youth worker, West End stagehand and graphic artist and illustrator, set up an exhibition on the fringes of the air show.

Within two years, his work was on display in the prestigious patron’s pavilion for VIP guests where, in normal, non-Covid years, he finds himself a solid fixture.

“I’m in awe of some of the British aircraft designers of the past, people like Sir Sydney Camm, whose designs encompassed biplanes, the Hawker Hurricane, and then the Hunter and right up to the Harrier jump jet. 

“Nowadays you’d have difficulty imagining one person being behind an aircraft design in the same way, they encompass so many specialities. But Camm was an absolute genius.”

His paintings, while on nodding terms with the likes of Andy Warhol, Richard Hamilton, Peter Blake and other “Pop” artists, retain a powerful individuality.

“I went to art college in the late 1960s when people like Hamilton and Blake and, over the Pond, Andy Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Jackson Pollock were working, and, yes, I was influenced by them,” he says. 

“But I’ve always tried to take a broader view of influences; others include Picasso, the Surrealists and all the way back to the Renaissance painters. Art fascinates me, it’s what I love.”

Some of his most stunning work features the Red Arrows, the result of a unique collaboration that came about after the world-famous team saw his 2006 painting, Red Arrows Freestyling Through the Bluebell Woods.

“The team saw the painting and were so positive. There are millions of brilliant images of the Red Arrows so I was delighted to hear that they had never seen anything like these,” he recalls.

“They invited us to RAF Scampton and it was a great privilege for Carole and I to be at their home base and to join them at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, where they train.”

From that came a relationship that has seen David creating an outstanding collection of original paintings inspired by the Reds. 

In a nice twist, he saw the team’s first ever public display with his dad at Biggin Hill on the edge of Kent.

Being so closely identified with aviation is, he says, a “double-edged sword”.

“On the one hand you can be labelled and pigeonholed, while on the other it’s the thing you become known for and good at and accepted for. It’s certainly opened doors for me around the world and I’m grateful for that.” 

Awarded Honorary Companionship of the Royal Aeronautical Society in recognition of his exceptional contribution in transforming aviation art with his iconic paintings, Bent enjoys a unique position.

His work also extends to world issues and landscape geometry.

Ironically, for an aviation specialist, he enjoyed the clear skies over lockdown and created new works including his first self-portrait in 30 years, a portrait of Carole and images showing the return of nature around his home on the outskirts of Swindon,Wilts.

But it is his majestic aviation art, all entirely original and highly striking, for which many will continue to know him best, and he’s happy enough about that.

“Aviation has had a major impact on our modern world,” he says. 

“It’s one of those strange things but I call myself an artist with a niche interest in aviation, rather than an aviation artist. As a subject, it’s incredibly broad and very deep. It’s also very cutting edge. It’s leading the way in terms of many new technologies. ” 

Out Of This World by David Bent runs until August 29 at Tetbury Goods Shed, Tetbury, Gloucs.Visit shed-arts.co.uk/ for information.

You can see more of David’s via his website davidbentstudio.com

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