Fighter soft book cover 1982

John Conrad Berkey made this painting of a fighter plane, probably for a book cover, and it’s all about energy, isn’t it? The dynamism of flight, the potential drama of combat. Look how he uses color to create a sense of depth. There are layers and layers of brushwork here. The blues and greens of the landscape below give way to warmer tones as you move up through the clouds. It's like he's built the sky out of strokes of pure light and atmosphere. I like the way Berkey suggests movement through the blurred edges of the planes. It’s not about photographic realism. It’s about capturing a feeling, an experience. The brushstrokes around the damaged aircraft on the right-hand side look urgent, almost frantic. There's a real sense of immediacy. It reminds me a little of some of Gerhard Richter’s blurred paintings, where the focus is on the act of painting itself. Ultimately, what we’re left with is an impression, a feeling of something that is hard to put into words.