ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 6, 1997 TAG: 9701070118
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RUSHDEN, ENGLAND
SOURCE: SUE LEEMAN ASSOCIATED PRESS
When he was a boy, Keith Hill would spend his vacations watching British and American planes taking off on their Cold War missions from a Royal Air Force base near his home.
Today, his long-lasting fascination with military aircraft is expressed in vibrant oil paintings of scenes before he was born: Allied planes in combat in World War II.
The 8th Air Force Memorial Museum Foundation, which is raising money for a new U.S. Air Force museum in Britain, was so impressed with Hill's intricate, soaring studies of Liberators and Mustangs that it made him its official artist.
The group gave him money to complete a collection of 60 paintings, one representing each 8th Air Force group stationed in England during the war. They will hang in the museum under construction at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford near Cambridge.
``I want this collection to be a tribute to what the Americans did during the war - and as a reminder that war is terrible,'' Hill said at his studio in Rushden in central England.
The collection, which took 12 years to paint, was completed at the end of November. Each painting measures 30 inches by 20 inches and took an average of 60 hours.
Some portray imagined scenes, others show actual dogfights recalled for Hill by veterans. ``I also used newsreels, flight logs, aerial photographs and models so I make sure I get it right,'' he said.
John E. Greenwood, a former B-17 navigator and now president of the 8th Air Force Memorial Museum Foundation, says Hill's work has ``that extra something.''
``Some artists just paint airplanes, but Keith works them into a proper background - he might include a train, or an ambulance, and all the planes have the proper markings,'' said Greenwood, now 74, from Alton, Ill.
One painting, ``Owe You a Pint Yank,'' depicts a P-51 from the 357th Fighter Group escorting a British Halifax home on D-Day; ``Climbing Out'' shows Liberators from the 93rd Bomb Group getting into attack formation.
``Wounded on Board'' has a Liberator from the 401st Bomb Group firing flares as it comes in to land to indicate it is carrying casualties.
Hill gets emotional talking to veterans. ``They can remember every detail. It was such a momentous time,'' he said.
The Duxford museum's sloping frame and vast glass frontage means it does not have a lot of flat wall space, so the paintings may be displayed on a film, with a recorded commentary. ``The idea is perhaps to hang 15 of the paintings at a time,'' Hill said.
As each of the paintings was completed, a copy was hung in the Eagle Hangar Museum in Oshkosh, Wis. Copies also might be hung at the 8th Air Force Heritage Center in Savannah, Ga.
Hill, 46, trained as an engineer and worked briefly for a subsidiary of Westland Helicopters before becoming a paramedic. He took up painting during the long hours on standby between emergencies.
Other U.S. commissions include 12 paintings depicting the history of the U.S. 20th Tactical Fighter Wing, which during World War II was based at the Royal Air Force base at Upper Heyford near Oxford. This collection is kept at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina, the unit's present home.
In 1993, Hill was commissioned to paint pictures of the battles in which the only five enlisted men in the history of the U.S. Air Force to receive the Medal of Honor served. They hang at Alabama's Gunther Air Force Base.
In September 1990, he exhibited his work at a reunion of 8th Air Force veterans in Las Vegas.
LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Keith Hill puts the final details on "Climbing Out" inby CNBhis studio in Rushden, England. The painting depicts Liberator
bombers of the 93rd Bomb Group of the Eighth Air Force assembling
over their base in England during World War II. Hill's fascination
with military aircraft began when, as a child, he watched British
and American planes take off near his home for Cold War maneuvers.
color AP