‘Day in the Battle’ Painting

Roy Nockold, 1954
Dimensions: 150cm x 200cm
Material: Oil on Canvas

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‘Day in the Battle’ Painting Audio MP3 File

This large framed oil painting is approximately one and a half meters high by two meters wide and was painted in 1954 by artist, Roy Nockolds.

It is entitled ‘Day in the Battle’ and shows swathes of aircraft flying through a bright, light-blue sky. Below is some indistinguishable coastline painted in muted light blues and greens with a river snaking along the ground, the sun glinting off the water. The viewer is positioned in the sky facing the oncoming aircraft. There is a layer of cloud cover below the viewer and the blue sky extends above this in the top quarter of the painting, with contrasting white contrails circling through the sky. The aircraft are painted very small and are flying in formations of squadrons. They appear almost to be gliding along the layer of cloud cover, flying towards and then below the viewer. Two aircraft have been hit and are spewing dark smoke; they have begun to fall away out of formation, one in the centre and another to the left of the painting.

The sunlight reflecting off the clouds and the river below give an impression that it is a lovely, pleasant day. The muted colours give the scene a feeling of peace and tranquility which contrasts sharply with the subject being portrayed.

Nockolds was a self-taught motoring artist who served with the RAF during the Second World War. He became an official war artist and carried out commissions for the Ministry of Information.