Phillips grew up loving art but never thought he could make it his livelihood. At college he majored in criminology, and he had been accepted into law school when four of his paintings were sold at an airport restaurant. That was all the incentive he needed to begin his work as a fine art painter.

Bill Phillips is now the aviation artist of choice for many American heroes and the nostalgic landscape artist of choice for many collectors. Bill’s strengths as a landscape painter are what gave him an edge in the aviation field: respect and reverence for a time and place. When one sees his aviation pieces, thoughts are 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, 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.

William S. Phillips Credentials

Resides:  Ashland, Oregon

 Born 1945, USA

      Bill has had a love affair with flight for as long as he can remember.  His first attempts at depicting aircraft in an artistic way came when he was 12 years old.  He and a friend would go down to the Van Nuys airport and spend the day watching the California Air National Guard F-86 Sabres land and take off.  By the time he got home he was so excited he spent the rest of the afternoon trying to sketch what he had seen.

 Bill’s love of flight led him into the Air Force and he was stationed at a number of bases – including Tan Son Nhut, VietNam where he spent many afternoons sketching the various aircraft on the base and the beautiful clouds that would gather in the afternoon during the monsoon season.  It was in the Air Force that Bill first began to sell his work.

 Upon discharge from the service he entered college.  However, even while studying law he continued to paint.  His desire to become an attorney came to a halt in 1971 when he sold four WWI paintings in a restaurant for $25 each.  It was at this point that Bill Decided that a career in art was what he really wanted and the new law degree became history.

 Bill states “My career in aviation art has carried me throughout the world and I have had some exciting experiences as I gather research for my paintings.  I flew in the F-15 during an air combat mission at Red Flag, with the Top Gun School at Miramar and into Mt. St. Helen’s shortly after the eruption to cover rescue operations.  I have also flown with the Thunderbirds and the Blue Angels. I have experienced the adrenalin rush of flying into a typhoon off Guam and the wild, low-level tactics employed by the F-5 pilots in the Royal Saudi Air Force and the Jordanian Air Force.”

 Bill has flown to Japan, Hawaii, England and Germany and was asked by the Navy to go to the Persian Gulf to cover the 1988 Earnest Will Convoys.  Bill spent a month in the Gulf and flew on many aircraft types.  Several paintings and sketches came from this assignment and were donated to the Navy.  For his part as a Navy combat artist, Bill received the Navy’s Meritorious Public Service Award.

 In June of 1987 Bill was honored with a one-man show at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.  This show contained a retrospective of over 40 major paintings and due to its popularity was put on a four-year tour of the United States.

 In 1994 The Greenwich Workshop published the hardcover coffee table book, titled the Glory of Flight.  In 1990 Bill had a successful one-man show consisting of over 70 original paintings at GWS Gallery in Carmel California.  This was one of the first shows of its type through a major non-aviation gallery of aviation subject matter.  In 1992 the Naval museum in Pensacola, Florida honored Bill with the first one-man show in the museum.

 Bantam Books had Bill do book covers for the Air and Space paperback series.  This was a new concept for book covers, as Bantam had made the decision to showcase the artist’s work in full inside the front cover, as well a on the jacket.  Bill also has done book covers for various hardbound books and Books on Tape, including the cover for Jimmy Doolittle’s book “I could never be so lucky again” and the Stephen Coonts book “The cannibal queen”.

 In 1991 Bill won the “History Award” in the Art for the park competition in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.  He also won the same award in the year 2000.  The Navy gave Bill the “R.G. Smith” award in 1996 for his excellence in Naval aviation art.

 In 1993 Greenwich Workshop Publisher released Bills’ first nostalgia print and they have been very successful. The theme throughout each of them has been an old home building or lighthouse with the subjects such as old cars, horses, children, etc. that cause one to reflect and be touched by an emotion from the past.  One sometimes has to look for it, but there is always a small airplane in his nostalgia pieces.

 The year 2000 started a new concept born out of the enjoyment of nostalgia paintings.  Bill has created his own little town called “Phillips Bay” which has been trademarked.  It began with four seasons and has grown to show various points of interest in Phillips Bay proper.  Bill is enjoying creating this town and it’s history.  The paintings depicting fireworks displays in Phillips Bay have been extremely popular.

 The U.S Postal Service released a 20-stamp sheet in July 1997 on the Classic American Aircraft that Bill had been commissioned to paint.  This was a three-year project.  It was the second most collected U.S. postage stamp series of 1997.

 In 1997, Southern Oregon University nominated Bill as “Alumni of the Year” for his achievement in art.

 In 2000 Bill won the Award of Merit by the American Society of Aviation Art and the Captain Duane Whitney Martin, USAF Award for artistic excellence in depicting the conflict in Southeast Asia during 1964-74.

 In 2001, US Art Magazine listed Bill’s painting “Rejoice” as one of the top 10 prints of the year.

 September 11, 2001 hit Bill very hard emotionally.  He was a fireman with the Ashland Oregon Fire Department for 12 years becoming an artist full time.  He could not think of painting anything for several weeks.  He then had an idea for a painting honoring the firemen who died in the events of 9/11.  For the next two weeks he posed two firemen and then painted the painting that came to be “A Prayer for My Brother.”  This piece was reproduced on canvas and paper and has been put in many of the Fire Departments across the country.  It has been a very emotional piece for firemen, their families and friends

 Bill won an Award for Excellence in the Mini 50 Paintings and the Top 200 in the National Arts for the parks competition in 2002.

 In April of 2003, the United States Air Force Museum included a retrospective of Bill’s work in their Centennial Celebration of Aviation Art and in August the Old West Museum in Cheyenne, Wyoming had a one-man retrospective show of Bill’s work.

 In 2003 Bill had two of his paintings accepted into the Top 100 of the Arts For the Parks Competition in Jackson, Wyoming, along with a painting accepted into the Top 50 of the Mini competition.

 In 2003, Bill was asked by the Britt Festival of Jacksonville, OR to do the poster for 2004.  The posters were sold to earn revenue for the Britt Festival, which is nationally known and brings in various musical artists each summer.

 In September 2004, Bill spent three weeks at the Grand Canyon North Rim as an Artist in Residence. During this time he gave two lectures, painting in front of the public and riding along with the law enforcement and fire fighting Forestry personnel. He will be donating a couple of paintings to the Grand Canyon Park Service for their permanent collection.

 Greenwich Workshop Publishers will be publishing a new book on Bill’s work and it is scheduled to come out in the fall of 2005.

 On July 29th, 2005, the US Postal Service will be releasing a second sheet of aviation stamps painted by Bill.

 Bill has been published by The Greenwich Workshop since 1982 and has released over 100 limited edition prints.

 In all of Bill’s paintings, whether aviation, nostalgia, seascapes or lighthouses, the emphasis is always on dramatic lighting and composition.  This is most apparent when viewing his paintings of the grand landscape.

 Bill has always enjoyed capturing an emotion in his work.  No matter which subject he is painting, the viewer will become part of the moment that is being captured on canvas.

 Exhibitions:

 2003:  Two paintings accepted into the Top 100 of the Arts for the Parks competition in Jackson, Wyoming and a miniature accepted into the Top 50 of the Miniature Show.  Centennial Celebration of Aviation Art, United States Air Force Museum.  Retrospective Show at the Old West Museum in Cheyenne, Wyoming

 2002:  National Arts for the Parks Competition, won an Award for Excellence in the Mini 50 Paintings, included in Top 200 Paintings

 2000:  Accepted into Arts for the park, won the History Award

1998:  Prestigious New York Society of Illustrators Show

1997: Top 100 in Art for the parks in Jackson Wyoming

1992:  One Man show at the Naval Air Museum, Pensacola, Florida

1991:  Arts for the Parks Competition, son the History Award for the Top 100

1990:  One man show, GWS Gallery in Carmel, California

1988:  One man show, Airmen Memorial Museum

1987:  One man show, Air and Space Museum, Washington DC