A beautiful hot sunny day awaited us for our first ever visit to Aerospace Bristol; housed in WW1 Belfast trussed hangars, and dedicated Concorde G-BOAF hangar. 15 members and their guests gathered for a catch up and coffee before dispersing around the well laid out collection.

These are all Bristol and Airbus related subjects from trams to space technology, with a lot to see, so as critique dawned all too soon I left it to Paul Couper to judge the days efforts.

After I had gone over the whole collection looking for our artists I felt it high time to get something down on paper other than the Brisfit I had done so far. I set to with oil crayon and gouache, working at times across a double spread of my usual square format sketchbook with the Bristol Freighter and especially the sectioned Bolingbroke holding my gaze.

Time as ever brings these days to a close and with the use of the education room a huge bonus at critique time, we bade our farewells to the Aerospace collection. Thank you to all their staff who made us so welcome. I’m sure we’ll return with plenty to see, great café, great aircraft, and just off the M5!

Rob Hames GAvA
West Region Organiser