Aviation and Military Artist
Sir Ernie Hamilton Boyette
The Short Story
Once upon a time......
The truth is that I was born in welfare on a sweat
potato farm in a small southern town named,
William Boyette had a previous marriage which was during the depression. He was the type of guy that refused to stand in line for soup, or bread. He was a proud man who fed his family and took care of them. He was resourceful and clever always being able to find and keep a job even though he had no formal education.
I was a late baby for the family. There was ten years between me and the last sister, number six, Patricia. I was born at 7:11A.M. on July 11, 1953. I weighed 7lbs, 11ozs. Plus I was the 7th child. My mother always called me her "seven-eleven" baby. Father died when I was two years old. Dad had been a burden as he was sick but things did not get altogether any better after he passed. I do remember at the age of five having to hold a chicken by its legs as my mother chopped off its head for the Sunday dinner. I watched mom and my sister Pat chop a chicken's head off one day not knowing that it would soon be my turn. One day my mother told my sister Pat and me to go execute the chicken. My first time. My sister and I were uncomfortable with the task fumbling terribly. After a while Mom came out quite frustrated and snatched up the chicken by its neck and as one might say, "ringed 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 as soon as they were able. Mother stood over every child with a mandate that we would get through our financial problems and every child would finish High School. Each child did in fact contribute, 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 nothing.
I liked to read as a child and my interest drifted from Egyptian history to War. My life changed when I read "God is my co-pilot" by Robert Scott in the sixth grade. I then read every war book I could find in the school library. Mind you I did read a lot but that was because I really liked learning new facts on a continuous basis. I was not a sissy pussy-boy. I was in deed active but I kept a book with me for when I had free time.
I read about the Civil War, Revolutionary
War, the 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 started I added the name of each book as I completed it. The list includes all books and a few short stories I had to read for school assignments. If I read it, I wrote it down. In one calendar year from January first to January first which stretched over two different schools and two different grades I read 72 books. 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. Civil War Navy commanders, tactics, I could not get enough. My heritage runs deep in the history of this country. I am related to Horace Mann who started the public school system. Also related to two presidents. Rutherford B. Hays and the first and only president of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis. Distant relations on my mothers side that is.
In the twelfth grade I was elected senior
Class President of the
Class of 1972,
I entered collage in the summer right after I graduated from high school. I was not prepared. My mind was just not into any further study. After one and a half years in Junior College I did something that most American know nothing of and that is I worked in a factory. I worked swing shift. Swing shift turned out to be a different shift every week. 8A.M. to 4P.M. one week. 4P.M. to 12A.M. the next and then the dreaded "grave yard shift from 12A.M. to 8A.M. in the morning. A different shift every week for two years. Think about it. A different shift every week for two years.
When Mitt Romney started working he started off by buying and selling companies and laying people off and forcing them to take less in wedges. When I started work I started off by sweeping the floor. There is a big difference between Mitt and me; I'm the better man. I then worked my way up to become the local Union President in three years from the day I walked in the factory door. Union is a different way of life. You really learn the value of life and what you do with your life. You learn to care about your job. How valuable your job really is. Especially after you get married and start having children. You learn how valuable your job REALLY IS! And you think about your contribution to your job. And you learn that you REALLY have to start to take all of life very serious. It's time to grow up.
People who work outside of unions learn their own life's lesions. They learn one lesion here and one lesion a few years later taking a lifetime of "high's and low's" to catch on. In a Union you work as a team. You think as a team and you act as a team. But most important of all, you defend each other like a pack of wolves! Where as in the office when the "Boss" fires an employee for no good reason the other office workers fall on their knees in a whoreish worship to the "Boss" to stay in favor. How sad. No one had the guts to step forward and say "NO!" You are wrong." Decades later I lost a "non-union" job for standing up to the "Boss" for firing someone for no reason. I was fired. And as you can imagine everybody at the job who were my best friends melted away into the cracks never even looking my way with any moral support. Cowards. All of them. Are you one as well?
The Union experience was interesting. I actually had more trouble with some of the Union members than I ever had with the company. I was physically threatened by both fellow Union members and by company foreman. Had a knife pulled on me, was shot at, had my tires cut once and my windshield broke once. It was fun. The excitement of situations like that is a rush. I loved it. However I did win! I never let any of them beat me and I was always able to get my way. Then I was hurt on the job, I was out for six moths nursing a bad hip and while I was recuperating the factory closed down a section effectively laying off the lower 25% on the seniority list of which I was one. I had just received my Real Estate license so I thought it was time to move on. The Union experience opened my eyes to a lot of new things in life but it never prepared me for my next "Life Adventure." Real Estate! But before I finish I always treated the company and the management as equals. I did stand side by side with the company and let them fire a few employees that we were all glad to be rid of. Some people do need to be purged from the work shop if they can not conform like being drunk at work, a lot!
My adventures in Real Estate would fill a book. I actually worked in commercial real estate. My job was to locate site locations for restaurants, fast foods and whatever. I was an expert on zoning. On two different occasions I was on the Clay County Board of Adjustments. This is a special zoning board for Clay County. I was also the Chairman of the board twice. And subsequently I was fired twice by my overseers at the Court House after saying too much about a few things. Believe me when I say there is no protection for "whistle blowers." Especially in politics. I have had my hand slapped several times. I am not afraid to step forward and say what you are doing is wrong.
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 with one "hands on" lesson the salesman taught me what I needed to know to get started.
I started providing wedding photography several years after I felt comfortable with my talents. In fact I photographed over 680 weddings. I did love my job but I will admit I did love the food at the weddings more! Yum!
I am also classified as a "Photo Artist" in that I create art with my camera. NOT on the computer. As a matter-of-fact, right before I started my aviation series I had some guys from New York who wanted to take me there and "make me famous." I knew however that if I put off my aviation series I would regret it. Especially if any of the aviators passed away while I was doing something else. So I turned down the offer to go to New York. I calculated that I can always come back to my photo-art.
I will put some of my photography samples here in the future.
Art History
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 the Spring of 1985. She left me all her belongings which included her art supplies and some blank canvasses. In the Fall of 1985 I was frustrated with the stuff that was on television. I did in fact have 100 channels with nothing on! Out of shear boredom I thought I would figure out how to paint. I had always wondered what it would be like to be an artist. To be able to create through painting or molding clay. So this was the time for me to get up and do something else. Even if I only make a mess and put everything back into the closet I can say that I tried.
This is where I must admit that I did have some art training in my past. Public school only. In elementary, middle, and in high school. I took art classes because they were available and I needed at least one good grade. Let me list the many institutions I personally trained at. The first was the art institute that put the love of the arts in me forever which was Charles E. Bennett Elementary School in Green Cove Springs, Florida. The next was Fort Caroline Junior High School in Jacksonville, Florida. And then there was Terry Parker High School, again in Jacksonville.
It was in middle school where art got a little more complicated. No more stick figures. Here I found out that if I start a painting that was going to take a lot of time and dedication, it would probably not get finished. The lesson I learned was that if I start a work of art, I needed 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. Art was fun, but I never thought I would ever consider art for anything other than entertainment. So that is the extent of my art background.
Finally I trained at Boca Ciega, High School in beautiful St. Petersburg, Florida. (I am kidding here you know!?!) It was at the institute in St. Petersburg where I got my first "F" in art. I kept painting military art and not abstract crap like the teacher wanted. The art teacher we had was quite talented but he acted like he hated to teach and he was only teaching because he had failed as an artist. So I did an abstract of an F4U Corsair destroying enemy vehicles on a road way. The teacher hated it! I laughed inside. I told him I would never do any thing like that again. Poor me! That was what he saw. What really happened was me and my friends were laughing our selves silly because I pissed him off so bad he failed me for that project! Sorry, but I am proud of that. Somehow. Really. For some reason the teacher took a "dis-like" to me. He didn't know me from Adam but he did not like me. So I dug in my spurs.
I tried to put "Cubism " into this art with the Corsair. The teacher wanted Cubism, then here you go!
Notice how I signed my name on the artworks above. I love the smell of Blitzkrieg in the morning.
The next assignment was again something stupid so I painted a German Panther tank going down a road in Poland with a cart of dead civilians lying around. The teacher did not like that one either!?! Ha! Ha! Only at the end of the course did I do as he pleased. The last artwork assignment for the class I did perfectly as requested. I did exactly what he wanted in the watercolor medium he requested. It was exactly what he wanted but he could not bring himself to give me an "A." He was a dick. I laughed. He gave me a "C". I still have that artwork and it was exactly what he wanted and done properly. It would have been an "A" if we had been pals. He was a dick and I was a dick. It was funny at the time but I would never do such again.
Back to the Future, 1985; I found myself standing next to my kitchen counter with a canvas and paints laid out trying to figure out how to start a painting. The television was turned off. National Public radio with Classical Music was turned on.
Mom had books on how to paint. I looked through a book named, Painting Wild Animals and said to myself, “I’ll definitely consider this.” I looked through a book on Painting Old Barns and Houses, again I said to myself, “Ok let’s see what else there is.” The next book was Painting Land and Mountains and another book Painting The Sea. The last book was How to Paint the Nude. I like women so this was my starting point.
BANG! "Lighting Struck," one might say.
This was my first painting. August/September 1985. I planned the artwork and painted this girl in two hours. This including looking through the books, planning, sketching, painting to cleaning out my brushes. I did not like any of the poses of the girls in the art book so I grabbed a Penthouse. I thought the image above was simple and clean.
When I started painting I began with simple subjects. I started paintings subjects against a white background. With each new painting I would add something to the background until I was adding the whole back ground. Below is the level I reached with painting in backgrounds.
This is my tenth painting I think. This is Mark Anthony and Cleopatra. This painting is 18x24; no a little larger, I can not remember. This painting is discussed in detail in my auto-bio art history which will be available in the near future. I am working on a auto-bio of just my artwork. I will have every artwork I have done since third grade. That got you excited didn't it? No!?! Darn it. Thought I had you there for a while. I will have a full layout of all my art in order. I will explain what I did on every piece of art. Why I painted it. What I painted the artwork with. What I was thinking. How I over came the different things I encountered while working on the artwork. I will explain every little thing about every work of art.
I want to do this so no art critic present or in the future will be able to make up stuff about my artworks. How can an art critic know "why did he paint this?" or, "What was he saying when he painted that?" I do not want any stinking worthless freeloading do nothing art critic or art historian putting words in my mouth or stuff up my ass after I am dead. I will leave my own story for everyone to see. I will gladly "Interpret" my own artwork thank you very much!
This is a close up. I really enjoyed painting this. The next three artworks I did were all Conan type artworks. Conan the Warrior and John Carter of Mars. My heroes.
I could really enjoy receiving a commission for a few more of these types of artworks. I would like to do different topics from different books by Edger Rice Burroughs. As to the John Carter Series and his life on Mars, I painted several of these and I love them. Anybody out there interested in some original art? I paint these artworks large.
Conan is my hero. This was painted right after the Mark Anthony work above. Believe me when I say there is a good story behind this painting.
This is a close up of the painting. Look at the blood being flung from the ax blade. I am still a little boy, stuff like that is still cool to me.
I loved doing this painting. I would love to do more like this but I know now that I will not be able because of my health. (I have a bad heart condition) Yet if someone is interested in commissioning a painting like this so I can pay my medical and household bills I would appreciate it very much. This painting is 24x36". All artworks like this in the future would be three feet by four feet in size. Contact me below if you are interested in helping me earn some honest money with my talents.
I would love to paint one of these again. This is one of my first works. I am much better now.
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 the painting so much that I painted this for myself. Sadly this painting has become lost. I put it up for sale in a restaurant and the restaurant closed! Remember this is still one of my first twenty or so artworks.
Mind you changing from commercial real estate leasing and management to becoming an artist was not a mid life crisis. I was not split, no; no matter what the above photo shows.
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. Believe it or not but the decision I made that night was to put all of my artwork in the closet and shut the door. I did not touch a paint brush for over one year, almost two.
I had done a lot of market research looking into art for a living. The art research showed that I would have to start from scratch. I knew that I could do it and be somewhat successful but I would have to start at the bottom. I would have to work my way to the top, again! So I figured Real Estate was my best bet and I believed that real estate would give me a greater rate of return. I had just started a new Real Estate Company and I had a few promising employees. So I thought I would give it a try.
Months Later...My day job got worse. Remember those key employee's? Well they turned into blood sucking leaches. Plus I had a few clients who ripped me off for tens of thousands of dollars each! 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. I was bellowing, I was hurt. I was shaking my fist at the ceiling screaming, cursing and crying. After I collected my senses I swore to myself that in ten years I would walk away from my day job and make my income solely with my paintbrush, my pen and my camera.
The only problem was that I had not written anything seriously since a creative writing class in Jr. Collage. I was at best an above average photographer. And I was where I am here with my artwork which is displayed above.
This was a big step, but I gave myself plenty of time to properly polish my yet unknown talents. I say this because I would have laughed in your face if you told me that I would be an artist one day. That very idea was so out of my mind. It was a stupid idea. I never considered being an artist.
So I really took art seriously. I tried several portraits. It took a few paintings to get the hang of it.
This is a painting I did of a friends daughter. It was from a photo I took of the girl. It was delightful to work with a child's face. They are special. No wonder everybody likes kids. They are our future.
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? 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. It just so happened that at this time in my life I had been buying and collecting aviation art prints for the past several years. These Limited Edition prints I was buying were by great artist like Robert Taylor and others. I though these artist were incredible. This was a new dimension in the art market. There always had been a need for military illustration but it had been a small art market in the past. With the emergence of aviation art starting in the late 1980's and the early 1990's, military at became huge. 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 aviator was the best deal around. So I decided to try painting airplanes.
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.
In
my day job I was trained in marketing. 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. Well here we go! 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 a proper selection of about seven to ten different prints that the museums and galleries became interested in my artwork. With the time involved in research and interviewing the aviators and then the publishing cost, it took me five years to get to this point. Five years! I was working two jobs and starting my art business made three jobs.
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 about to work with passed away while I was trying to work with them. The third year I published only one print! This makes only five prints in three years to market.
Then it happened very quickly. However I must add that my art was not paying my bills. I was still holding down two jobs getting my 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 took a financial hit in the gut. I poured my heart and soul into my dreams. I invested every penny I earned and then some into new prints. Slowly orders started to come in.
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 about them when I was a young man. I had even made plastic models of their airplanes. I already knew about the adventures of the aviators but only the bits and pieces I had gleamed from history books. Now I was sitting across from great Americans like George Gay interviewing him on every aspect of his flight at the Battle of Midway.
A few years after I started my self taught art program I though I would try something new so I took some night classes. These classes were given by a local neighborhood art teacher. 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 of airplanes was starting to do fairly well but I was trying to expand my knowledge of art in general. I had been working in oils and had just changed to acrylics. For some reason when compared to the other students who had been taking classes with this teacher for years, I was faster. I learned faster than the rest. Mind you, they had more years in art and with a good art teacher than I ever had. I was quicker with my assignments than the others in the class. I always had my class assignments done in one or two class sessions. It took everybody else in the class a month to finish the same project. Our class met for two hours on Tuesday night every week. So it took a month for each project. I was done on the first night in most all cases.
Above is some of my friends in our art class. Our assignment on this night and for the next several classes was to use modeling clay to create a human form.
I had my subject above done in one class. The girl is wearing a loin cloth which is bunched up between her legs and the back flap is covering her butt. The hair was braided. After this photo was taken and the teacher graded my project I mashed my Indian Princess into a ball. I wish that I had taken more photos of the sculpture first. The artwork featured a sword in the stone. This is the only clay project I had ever done. All arms and legs were properly proportional to the body.
One night the teacher asked us to do a self portrait. Again; we were given a month to work on this. The first night after receiving our assignments I sat and watched everyone stumble into their approach to start the assignment. I knew it would take them weeks. At that very moment I stood up, took my paints and canvas back to the teachers bathroom, looked in the mirror and in one two hour class I completely painted myself. I am no Goya, or Van Gough, but as far as I am concerned my talents are just fine. What a handsome man! Ha! Ha!
My art for fun continues.
Another Self Portrait.
I love being the class clown! This is Me as Santa. I painted Santa, took this photo and made Christmas Cards with this image many years ago.
I was sad because liquid was spilled on this artwork and ruined it. The artwork was done in watercolors and pencils on 18x24" textured paper. The art paper came apart. I did this one night at home and not at art class. Even though I took lessons I still did projects at the house. On the wall in the background is a painting I did the year before of the Madonna and Child.
Building a Business Model.
I needed to get busy and start marketing my artwork.
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.
To his web page: 136 Nighthawks
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.
To this web page: Blue Angles
In 1994 I started my series "Famous American Aviators". My first prints were truly my heroes, Below is George Gay.
George was one of my first aviation heroes. I put off my series until I found him because I wanted George to be the first in the series.
George Gay and the Artist in 1994
I am glad that I waited and endeavored to find George yet sadly 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. Fortunately Bob survived the war with only a few scars on his butt and a book full of stories.
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.
My next print was with the pilot that flew the famous "Memphis Belle." Robert Morgan and his wife were wonderful to work with. I am so lucky. Above is Robert Morgan and the Artist. I am displaying the B-29 named the "Dauntless Dotty." The reason the B-29 was not named the Memphis Belle was that Bob was now dating another beautiful woman.
Robert Morgan, B-17F, "Memphis Bell"
Robert Morgan B-29, "Dauntless Dotty"
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 my 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 the 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 I read had very little about the Tuskegee Airmen. I found a paragraph here and a paragraph there but no real information. However I was 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. I am pleased that I started the ball rolling in helping Archer obtain his proper honor plus some one in Hollywood bought one of my prints and got the idea to start telling their stories as well.
Now there is a group that have sent me information that proved that Le Archer is NOT and Ace. Fact is fact, Lee may not have been an Ace yet no one knows if the other German airplanes he shot up later crashed from his acts. It is all a thin line at times. I was not there and no one else was these either except Lee Archer and his flying partner.
Tuskegee Airmen, Lee Archer
The Artist and WASP Pilot Florene Miller.
I also enjoyed meeting and working with 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. 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 but my prints signed by the original WASP pilots are the only limited edition prints marketed to this day that are autographed by these great women.
WASP Pilot, Florene Miller
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 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 the 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.
Italian Ace, Ugo Drago
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.
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 on a print of the SBD dive-bomber he flew in WWII. It was a blast to work with Cook in 1997 so I jumped at the chance to work with him again.
On the left is the Artist, Cook Cleland and his grandson Shawn.
By chance in March of 2003 I was officially knighted as a “Knight of Vision” for my efforts in telling the stories of our famous aviators.
This
was not an honor I worked towards. 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
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 did receive an 18" short sword and paper work documenting the honor. How cool is that? 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 for Vietnam. They said I was too young and booted me out of the recruiting office after catching on to me lying 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 with Christopher W. Johnson, Sergeant First Class. The recruiter told me that I was too old! I was 48!
Now here I am! Twenty years of aviation art publications and historical research. My artwork is marketed nation wide in aviation museum gift shops. There are also several catalogs like Historic Aviation that market my limited edition prints. My artwork has also appeared in the nationally circulated Aviation History magazine three times. My prints are also marketed world wide. Great Britain, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Germany, Mexico, Canada, Japan and France. I thank you all.
I have done many things in my life and below are links to other people I have meet and worked with.
Photos with me and famous politicians.
Photos of me and other famous people.
Enjoy.
New Chapter
My life has taken on a new chapter. It was exciting. It involved dieing and not dieing. I had three heart attacks in a six month period. I quit breathing and was starting to flat-line over seven times. Amazing but true but my balls even swelled up to the size of a grapefruit each! It's not a pretty story. I will write more later. I saw the best our medical system offers and yes; the worst. Yet I live. I will add that I really did work hard to get better with tons of prayer and meditation. No, I mean it when I say I really worked hard at getting better. I did! A positive attitude is worth a million dollars. However I did get rather short with a few people during this time but they asked for it. I was honked off at the fact that here I was recovering from not one but three heart attacks yet there was always those people who were pissing me off! They knew I was sick and they were mean. There are mean people among us.
I pulled through the best I could. My heart is permanently damaged. I am permanently disabled. I got my heart rate up from 25% to 33%. My doctors thought that was a good improvement. When I found out that I was out of danger I went around and personally told all of my friends. Many people cried when they heard that I was not going to die. I have such good friends! I had friends cry one after another when I told them I was going to live. I am so lucky! (This is a joke by the way.)
Thank you for your time and enjoy my web site.
I appreciate your considering one of my prints for your collection or a gift for a friend.
Please, tell your friends about my endeavors and my web site.
Sir Hamilton
Sir Ernie Hamilton Boyette
This photo was taken by a friend, Paul Bray.
This is a pencil sketch I commissioned on December 5, 2008 by Jesse Britten in St Augustine, Florida. Great job Jesse!
What I like about Jessie's sketch is that he caught my strong determined face. A face showing complete confidence. The face of a leader. That sounds especially egotistical to the common person when actually it is not. I know who I am. Do you?
"Know thy Self." Because if you don't; who cares!
Looking for Investors
My business is slow right now and I am looking for investors.
If you are interested then please go to the page below.
Sir Ernie Hamilton Boyette
107 Arthur Moore Drive
Green Cove Springs, Florida 32043
E-mail us.
Posted 2-7-07 Edited. This is the short version of my Bio.
Posted May 9, 2012, Re-write.
Counter set the day of creation, July 6, 2011.
Edited in March 7, 2013.