This was our first visit to the Wings Museum located in rural West Sussex near the village of Balcombe. Originally based at Redhill Aerodrome the museum moved to its current location about 10 years ago.

It has a wonderful collection of WWII aviation artifacts arranged in themed exhibits. While there are several rare and interesting airframes on show these are not complete. Many are displayed in ‘as found’ condition. Others are in the process of being restored.

While normally closed on a Monday the museum very kindly opened specially for our visit. Thirteen Guild artists attended, and we were greeted at the door by volunteer Simon who gave us an introductory talk about the museum and showed us the impressive workshop were, amongst other things, a B-25 Mitchell bomber is being restored.

For those intending to sketch/paint the selection of a suitable subject was not an easy task owing to the sheer number of artifacts – and the lack of space. Paul Couper and Richard Wheatland kindly ran the critique at 3:30pm. Although some of the group had to leave early, there was still a good range of artworks to review.

Despite the low temperature in the museum the day was a great success. The nature of the exhibits was always going to challenge our artistic skills and I think everyone found it an interesting learning exercise.

The Wings Museum team has ambitious plans, and we will follow its progress with interest and hopefully revisit in the near future.

David Livesley GAvA South East Region Organiser