“Aviation was my first artistic love,” says William S. Phillips, “but my true, enduring love remains my Christian faith, home and family. So it is my pleasure to combine all of it in my work. The historical aviation subjects, I research; the contemporary and nostalgic subjects, I live.” William Phillips is the aviation artist of choice for many American heroes and the nostalgic landscape artist of choice for many collectors. Bill Phillips' strengths as a landscape also gave him an edge in the aviation field: respect and reverence for a time and place. When one sees his aviation pieces, one thinks about the courageous individuals who risked their lives for our freedom. In Bill’s nostalgic works, the viewer understands fully what that freedom is . . . the precious values that make life worth living.
After one of his paintings was presented to King Hussein of Jordan, Phillips was commissioned by the Royal Jordanian Air Force. He developed sixteen major paintings, many of which now hang in the Royal Jordanian Air Force Museum in Amman. The Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum presented a one-man show of Phillips’ work in 1986; he is one of only a few artists to have been so honored.
In 1988, William Phillips was chosen to be a U.S. Navy combat artist. For his outstanding work, the artist was awarded the Navy’s Meritorious Public Service Award and the Air Force Sergeants Association’s Americanism Medal. In 1991, three of Phillips’ works were chosen as part of the top 100 in “Art for the Parks,” the prestigious annual fund-raiser for the National Park Service, and one painting received the “Art History Award” from the National Park Foundation.
"The original purpose of the airplane was to allow us to experience the sky, so in my work," explains Phillips. " I hope to convey the beauty and exhilaration of flight—in all its many forms and in many different artistic ways."
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