Aviation and Military Artist
Sir Ernie Hamilton Boyette
Once upon a time......
The truth is that I was born in welfare on a sweat
potato farm in a small southern town named,
I was a late baby for the family. There was ten years between me and the last sister, number six, Patricia. Father died when I was two years old. I do remember at the age of four having to hold a chicken by its legs as my mother chopped off its head for the Sunday dinner. One time my mother told my sister Pat and me to go execute the chicken. I think it was my first time. My sister and I were uncomfortable with the task fumbling terribly. After a while Mom came out quite frustrated and snatched the chicken as one could say "ringing its neck". From what I understand my mom had a lot on her hands. My older brothers went to work in town five miles away. Mother stood over every child with a compassionate mandate that we would get through this and everyone will finish High School. Each child did in fact contribute and went to school and all graduated. Life was very hard for my brothers and sisters after my dad died. I was a baby and remember very little.
Mom was a child of the depression and had
to drop out of school after the seventh grade to go to work in order to help
support her family. Being poor for many is simply not an option. Nor for many
millions is it NOT making "bad life decisions." This is a phrase that
many of the rich right-wing people use for the poor. These monsters explain away
the flight of the poor as, “people who make bad life
decisions.” The rich truly believe that we all have equal opportunities which
is not true at all. Poverty is a fact of life. It is a fact for many, no
matter how hard they work, nor how honest, everything they do or try will all be
for naught. Because you always have the rich and the government standing over
you to make god-damn sure you stay right where you are.
My mother drilled into my mind to be prepared. “Don’t just work hard, work smart. Keep your head down but keep looking up.” I learned that when you see an opportunity, take it. It was like Mom was saying, “Life dealt me a bad hand, but now I know the game, let me show you some tricks.” Mom was my best friend. Hard to explain for a macho type guy like me but mom was not just a mother, she was a thinker. Her knowledge was broad and vast. We could talk. I caught her off guard many times as a child with some of my “life’s questions.” I asked questions the other children never thought of, because they were after all simply children. I was just about born aware. I was different. Mom knew I was different and we had more of an intellectual relationship than a mother-son type thing. We cohabitated.
We were still poor when I began working at sixteen years old. Even though mom had been trained as a nurse’s aid we were barely able to get by on what she made. How sad that society pays the person on the bottom that does the hardest work under the worst conditions the least.
Transgressing a little to my younger years, the first magazines I saw as a child (pre-school) were the Post, Life and Time magazines my mother would subscribe to. The subjects they covered filled the brain in my small head with wonder. Magazines were my windows to the world. Here I was stuck on a run down farm in the country, on welfare, a prisoner.
The subjects that caught my attention
were a display of Salvador Dali and then the series of ancient Egyptian
artworks. The magazines displayed flawless color photographs of gold masks of
the pharaohs and the ebony carvings of men with hawk heads and some with the
heads of jackals. This lit my mind on fire. I was totally convinced at the age
of five that I too was from this era, ancient
Then my life changed again. I read "God is my co-pilot" by Robert Scott in the sixth grade. I was not a recluse. I was not the sissy pussy-boy who hid in the corner and read. I was very involved in sports and had lots of friends. I just used all my spare time to keep a book handy. I then read every war book I could find in the school library. However I do need to add that I did read the occasional war book during the third to sixth grades but these were just books on war and not on any one person in particular. I was really moved by the movie of Sergeant York, so I read the book. But I still liked the ancient Egyptians.
I read about the Civil War, Revolutionary
War, French Revolution and Napoleon. Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, I read them all. I read every war book at each school I went to all the way
through tenth grade. As a matter-of-fact, I kept a list of all the books I read
in the ninth and tenth grade. In the ninth grade I went to Fort Caroline Jr.
High in Jacksonville,
On the list I added the name of each book as I completed it. The list also included the books
and a few short stories I had to read for school. If I read it, I wrote it down.
In two years I read 72 books. I was not especially fascinated with the wars of
the Spartans and Romans we covered in World History, thus I never pursued any
in-depth research in those areas.
I knew the names of every ace and how many aerial victories they had, German, Navy, Air Force, Japanese. I loved it. So this was it for me at the time. HOWEVER, as you can imagine, in the eleventh grade my hormones kicked in and my mind turned to music, girls and politics. If you know me then you know that I am more interested in politics than music and girls but my favorite band was Steppenwolf. Steppenwolf released an album named "Monster" clearly describing the criminal government that we had at the time, I loved it. As a matter-in-fact, the band could re-release the album today since the situation in our government has only gotten worse.
In the twelfth grade I had to get a job and every pay check I made starting from my first I took home and turned it over to mom. With this she paid the bills and provided me with shelter, many great home cooked meals, Wrangler blue jeans, cheep tennis shoes, white socks and pull over shirts from J.C. Penny’s with a pocket on the front.
My mother was a self taught artist and painted wild life. I encouraged her as much as possible. She tried to paint a little of everything. When my mother passed away in 1985, she left me everything which included her art supplies and some blank canvasses.
In 1986 I thought I would figure out how to paint. I was bored and always wondered what it was like to be an artist. To be able to create through painting or molding clay. I had a good job but I was becoming to hate it. I pulled mom's "art stuff" out and contemplated painting.
Now is where I must admit that I did have some art training in my past. Public school only. In elementary, middle, and high school I took art classes because they were available and I needed at least one good grade. I found that if you start a painting that was going to take a lot of time and dedication, it would probably not get finished. My mom tried to get me to paint but it all started and ended like this...
Start the painting with an explosion of ideas and enthusiasm. Wait a day or so for it to dry so you can add another layer or subjects. Paint more, make changes. Wait again a few days for it to dry so you can do more. Paint a little more. Interest in the painting for a young boy would start to wane about this time. Let it dry some, and paint some. The artwork always ended up in the closet, unfinished. I started quite a few paintings that were never finished.
The lesson I learned was that if I start some sort of artwork, I need to do it quick before I lost interest. The only works I completed as a child were the one’s that I was able to do in one or two class sessions. It was fun, but I never thought I would ever consider art for anything other than a entertainment.
So as we would say, what I did on that
fateful (or frightful) night in 1986 was to pick a subject. First I had to figure out what I wanted
to paint. Mom had books on how to paint. I looked through Painting Wild Animals
and said to myself, “I’ll definitely consider this.” Looked through
Painting Old Barns and Houses, again I said to myself, “Ok let’s see what
else there is.” Painting
Land
and Mountains, Painting The Sea. "Interesting", I thought. Another
book on, How to paint the Nude,"
I did not paint anything from the book. I did not even use the book as a reference other than get an idea of a subject. I grabbed a Play Boy magazine and chose a side profile of a woman putting on lipstick.
I traced the girl from the book and then enlarged her trying to keep the proportions of the figure correct. I then simply drew the girl on the canvas and painted her. Total time was about two hours counting the time I looked through the art books, a Play Boy, painted and cleaned up. Painting size is 16x20".
It was enjoyable to paint. I did about ten paintings over the next couple of years. It was fun. My artwork progressed in an odd way. I decided to continue to paint subjects against the white back ground and with each new painting I started adding more to the work. With the next girl I added a towel. In the next a bowl of fruit, then I started adding backgrounds. All of my paintings of women are classical and polite. My goal was to slowly get myself wrapped up in the artwork to a point where I wanted to do more. Finally I was doing full backgrounds.
Mark Anthony and Cleopatra.
This was most literally my 8th or 9th painting.
Close up of above.
This is the only wild life painting I produced. My mother had painted this same artwork for my brother-in-law and sister.
I liked it so much I painted this for myself, but now this painting has become lost. I put it up for sale in a restaurant and the restaurant closed!
I also tried several portraits. It took a few paintings to get the hang of it.
I enjoyed doing different subjects but I had to make a decision. Am I going to play at art, or is it possible to do more?
How about money? Any money in art? The night I made up my mind to pursue art I concluded that a venture into the art market could not be any more complicated than anything else I have tried in the past. However believe it or not but the decision I actually made that night was to put all of my artwork in the closet and shut the door. I did not touch another paint brush for over one year. I had started a new company, had a few promising employees and calculated that if I wanted art I could afford to buy what I liked.
My day job got worse. Remember those key employee's?, well they turned into to blood sucking leaches. I changed my mind. I pulled mom's art stuff back out. And when I say my job got worse it really did. One night I found myself standing in the middle of my kitchen cursing and crying openly and uncontrolled. I was bellowing, I was hurt. I started shaking my fist at the ceiling screaming and cursing the foul butt-heads I had been working with. In my crying and screaming curse words at the ceiling I swore to God that night that in ten years I would be able to walk away from my job and make my living solely on the works from my pen, my camera and my paint brush!
The only problem was that I had not written anything seriously since a creative writing class in Jr. Collage. I was only at best an above average photo-buff. I was where I was above with my artwork. This was a big step, but I gave myself plenty of time to properly polish my yet unknown talents.
I needed a product and a market. Was I going to do light houses? Horses? Children, mountains, birds, or what? I really needed a master plan. I had been buying aviation art prints for the last several years from great artist like Robert Taylor and others. This was a new dimension in the art market. There always had been a military art market but not like the emergence of aviation art starting in the late 1980's and early 1990's. It became a fad and I was spending my money on limited edition prints that were autographed by my aviation heroes. I thought that being able to buy a really nice artwork autographed by a famous aviators was the best deal around. So I decided to try painting airplanes.
In
my day job I was trained in marketing, and in June 1991 I decided to try my hand
at art as a business and used my marketing skills in trying to make a living
with my artwork. I was convinced that
I had talents that I had not yet developed. I also knew this was the time for me
to do something different. I swore that in ten years I would be making my living from
my artwork, writing, and photography.
In starting on this path I hung out less with friends. A few made fun of me for painting airplanes. They thought they all looked alike. At this point in my life peer pressure was laughable. Nothing was going to detour me from my goal. I got magazines on art marketing and read them from cover to cover. Especially articles about the blossoming military art industry. I started looking up museums and got in contact with their gift shop buyers. As I released new prints I sent them samples.
It took a while, years in fact to get shops to start carrying my artwork. It is hard to market a series when you only have one print. It is still hard when you have two prints. It was not until I had about seven to ten different prints and had a proper selection that the museums and galleries became interested in my artwork and started ordering. It took five years before I had that many prints in inventory! The first year, 1993, I published two prints. The second year, 1994, I did two more. I was really anxious because a few of the aviators I was working with or were about to work with passed away. The third year I published only one print! This makes only five prints to market.
Then it all happened very quickly. However, art was not paying my bills. I was still holding down two jobs getting this art business started. I was paying for publishing the prints myself. At first the return on investment was painful. It was my call, and I did it. I poured every penny I earned and then some into new prints.
Yet what I just wrote reflects the mechanical and financial theory and application executed as planned. It does not at all reflect what I was doing. I was documenting the war exploits of my boyhood heroes. I was meeting the men I had read everything I could find back when I was in Jr. High School. I made plastic models of their aircraft when I was younger. I already knew their lives and adventures but only the bits and pieces I gleamed from history books. Now I was sitting across from great Americans like George Gay interviewing him on every aspect of his infamous flight.
After a few years out of curiosity I took some night classes in art by the local neighborhood artist. She had a great reputation and everyone liked her a lot. She had us do charcoal, watercolor, and mixed mediums. I thought this was cool but I was soooo bored. My series was already starting to doing fairly well and I was trying to expand my knowledge of art in general. I always had my class assignments done in one or two class sessions where as it took everybody else in the class a month. One night the teacher asked us to do a self portrait. I watched everyone stumble into their approach so I stood up, took my paints and canvas back to her bathroom, looked in the mirror and in one class completely painted myself. No I am no Goya, or Van Gough, but as far as I am concerned my talents are just fine. Below is the painting.
I did this in a two hour class. I can do much better now.
Step one. Secure a client base. I took an armful of my artwork out to the local Naval Aviation bases.
In the spring of 1993, I received my first commission from an F-18 Squadron stationed at Cecil Field, Jacksonville, Florida.
Commander John "Lites" Leenhouts employed me to do a black and white Limited Edition of their squadron aircraft.
I still have some of these prints available for only $35.00 each.
This was Commander John Leenhouts personal fighter.
Later that year in November I
released a print for the Blue Angel air show at
Cecil Field, Jacksonville.
Cecil Field was celebrating its 50th Anniversary.
I still have some of these available.
In 1994 I started my series "Famous American Aviators". My first prints were truly my heroes, here is George Gay.
George was one of my first aviation heroes. I put off my series until I found him.
I wanted George to be the first in my series of Famous American Heroes.
George Gay and the Artist in 1994
George was the first in my series of Famous American Aviators. It was also sad because George died during the time I was working with him.
I knew his story inside and out. I read about him for the first time when I was in sixth grade. He was my hero and I wish that I had more time with him.
My print was the last print that he signed.
"Tex" Hill is on the left, the artist, and Robert Scott in 1996.
These two guys where a hoot! Bob Scott wrote "God is my Co-Pilot" and boy-o-boy did he need God as his co-pilot because this guy was wild! Wild in the word of fearless. And when I mean fearless Scott flew into the face of death over and over and came out with only a few scars and a book full of stories.
Tex was one of those Navy pilots that was bored with his job. When the chance of joining the Flying Tigers and going against the Japanese came along he jumped at it! Flying under extremely poor conditions under insurmountable odds was exactly what he was looking for and he found it! Tex is a Tiger!
I am so lucky to be able to work with our great aviators. It is even more special to be able to call them my friends. To be around these great men and women is the most wonderful thing I have ever experienced.
Between January 1991 and December 2000 I painted over 100 paintings. From March 1993 to September 2000 I published 42 Limited Edition prints along with 36 poster prints. That is a total of 82 individual pieces of art. If I am not mistaken, I published more artwork than any other American artist in the same period of time. To properly clarify this I used my money, marketed the series of artwork by myself with no help from any other person, gallery, or publishing company. All of the other artist that were widely published I found were backed by galleries with agents, or publishing houses with several agents. I wanted to market my art without an agent.
I enjoyed working with the Tuskegee Airmen. Tuskegee Ace, Lee Archer and the artist.
Back when I was planning my series I swore that I would include the Tuskegee Airmen. I wanted to tell their story. In 1991 when I was planning this series there were no shows or movies about the Tuskegee Airmen. It was years in the future before the History Channel and Public Television would have documentaries about their units. I had always wanted to know more about the units of African American fighter pilots and this was my big chance. All of the history books in the past had very little about the Tuskegee Airmen. I found a paragraph here and a paragraph there but no real information. However I was completely determined to tell their stories and it was ME that publicly announced that Lee Archer was an official ace and the only ace of the Tuskegee Airmen years before the American Ace Association declared him an ace. After hearing Archer's story, I was convinced he was an ace, and I was correct.
The Artist and Florene Miller.
I also enjoyed meeting and working with one of our premier women pilots of WWII.
Again, when I was planning my series I was determined to tell the stories of the WASP pilots during the war. As with the Tuskegee Airmen there was little written about the WASP in the past but the History Channel and Public Television had documentaries about both groups in the mid 1990's as my prints were being released. If I am not mistaken, my print signed by Florene is the only limited edition print to this day that has been signed by one of the first 25 pilots personally selected by Jackie Cochran to be the first women pilots to serve the United States Army Air Force.
Countess
Maria Caproni, the artist, and
I really enjoyed the foreign aviators that I was able to work with.
It was a delight to go to Rome, Italy and meet one of the last living Italian aces. The Italian people were really impressed with the fact that an American would be interested in the history of the Italian Air Force. I learned so much in that week I was there. Countess Caproni's family had built most of the aircraft during Italy's entry into aviation right up and into the first World War. She gave me a book with all the aircraft that her families business had produced. I was impressed.
B-17 pilot Charles Brown, German Ace Franz Stigler, and the artist.
B-17 pilot Charlie Brown and German Ace Franz Stigler actually meet in the skies during the war. When Stigler came upon Brown's B-17 it was so badly shot up that Franz actually escorted the crippled bomber back to the English Channel where Charlie and his crew landed safely back in England. Just earlier that day Stigler had shot down two B-17's! Charlie continued flying bombing missions and Franz continued shooting down B-17's! No telling how many more times they passed each other in the air. This is a true story.
To read their story click here.
Classic Photography
Taking photos has been a passion of mine. It started in 1979 when I bought my first Pentax K-1000 from a local K-Mart on my birthday. I knew nothing about cameras. Fortunately the salesman was quite knowledgeable. In just a few minutes and some hands on experience, the salesman taught me what I needed to know to get started.
Since then I started providing wedding photography as well as photo-art.
To see some of my works go to the link below;
Classic Photography Sample Photos
In the fall of 2002 I was commissioned by Cook Cleland's family to paint all three of the F2G Corsair racers that he flew in the late 1940's at the Ohio Air Races. Cook won the Thompson Trophy in 1947 and 1949. I had worked with Cook in 1997 with a print of the SBD dive-bomber he flew in WWII. It was a blast to work with him in 1997 and I jumped at the chance to work with him again.
In March of 2003 I was officially knighted as a “Knight of Vision” for my efforts in telling the stories of our famous aviators. The gentleman who knighted me had watched me for several years. By chance I had worked with several aviators that he knew personally. I had in fact met Joel on several occasions and liked him a lot. He was a real jokester and fun to be with. He was present with Cook Cleland when I met with Cook on several occasions.
During combat in the Pacific with the Japanese, Joel managed one or two victories but spent most of of his time on long distance patrols where you would see noting of interest. During one combat with a Zero, Joel was lucky. A Zero pilot shot him down and he lived to tell the tale.
After the war Joel served the Air Force in England where he befriending Lord Mountbaton and the Royal Family. "Cat" had been Knighted in 1947 by Lord Mountbaton and the Royal family. His Knighthood allows him to bestow the same to others as he sees fit. Since 1947 he has only knighted 256 people. He was impressed with my sincere interest in telling the stories of our great aviators. This may sound like a casual event and I am making it so, yet it was very serious and important. And quite Royal and legitimate.
This
was not an honor I worked for. It was not something I strived for, nor was it
anything I sought out. It was not a goal or an ambition. I was completely
unaware that I was being watched and considered for this honor. I simply
received a phone call one day telling me that I had earned it.
The
Mission Statement for a Knight of Vision is:
Honor
Above Self
and
The Enlightenment of Mankind.
I
appreciate this honor. My official name is now
Sir
Ernie Hamilton Boyette
I now sign all my original paintings as,
Sir
Hamilton
If you are wondering if this honor has gone to my head, the answer is no. There was no financial compensation that came with the title. It has not, nor will it ever make me wealthy. I admit I do appreciate being knighted. Nothing more. I am a normal person who was born poor in a family on welfare. I have had to work for everything I have. No silver spoon here. I have never been given anything. I am just glad to be alive. That is enough for me.
I enjoy honoring our men and women in uniform who represent and defend our country. When I was 15 years old I tried to join the Army and volunteer to go to Viet Nam. They said I was too young and booted me out of the recruiting office after catching on to my trying to lie about my age! Joining the military left my mind after that and I never considered it again. On September 11, 2001 after watching the attack on the Twin Towers, I got in my car and drove to the US Army recruiting office in Orange Park, Florida and tried to sign up. The recruiter told me that I was too old! I was 48!
Even though I have never worn a uniform, most all
my mannerisms (if you know me) are as military orientated as if I served my whole life. I knew from the beginning when I was a child
the facts of life were "Honor, Loyalty and Self Awareness based on Strength
And here I am now!
18 Years of aviation art publications and historical research!
My artwork is marketed nation wide in aviation museum gift shops.
Several catalogs including Historic Aviation market my limited edition prints in their nation wide publications.
My artwork has also appeared in the Aviation History magazine two times.
My prints are also marketed world wide. Great Britain, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, Canada, and France. I thank you all.
In February 2007 Amazon.com added my artwork to their extensive line of products.
In 2009 Amazon proved to be such jerks that I withdrew from their inventory.
Thank you for your time and enjoy my web site.
I appreciate you considering one of my prints for your collection or a gift for a friend.
And please, tell your friends about my efforts and my web site.
Sir Hamilton
107Arthur Moore Drive
Green Cove Springs, Fla. 32043
904-406-5791
Sir Ernie Hamilton Boyette
I still like the ladies!
This is a pencil sketch I commissioned on December 5, 2008 by Jesse Britten in St Augustine, Florida.
Great job Jesse!
Sir Ernie Hamilton Boyette
107 Arthur Moore Drive
Green Cove Springs, Florida 32043
1-904-406-5791
E-mail us.
Posted 2-7-07