Royal
Engineers in military art prints by David Rowlands including the 39th
Engineer Regiment and 59th Commando Squadron Royal Engineers available
from Cranston Fine Arts.
David Rowlands has had a
passion for sketching British soldiers and their equipment ever since he
was a boy. After completing his studies at Manchester University in 1977,
he joined the staff of the Reading Room at the National Army Museum,
working full-time as a professional artist. Keenly interested in the
history of British campaigns, uniforms and tactics, he has painted many
historical battle scenes with great attention to accuracy and detail. This
has resulted in widespread recognition of his work with the result that he
has been commissioned to record the activities of many Regiments in the
present day. These commissions have taken him frequently to Northern
Ireland, as well as Germany, Cyprus, Hong Kong and Gibraltar. In 1991
David Rowlands was the only artist invited by the Army to visit the Gulf.
Attached to a Warrior crew of 3rd Battalion The Royal Regiment of
Fusiliers, he observed the work of the various Arms at first hand,
enabling him to complete many accurate paintings for Regiments and Corps
engaged in the conflict. Early in 1993 he was the first war artist to
visit Bosnia and record the British troops in Operation GRAPPLE 1. Invited
by Headquarters National Support Element, he traveled extensively on
convoys and sketched the operations from Split to Vitez and Travnik.
Several paintings have been commissioned by the participating units,
including one of 7 Armoured Workshop REME at Gornji Vakul. Over the past
ten years David has been sent regularly to Iraq and Afghanistan for
projects involving many of the British and Nato forces. He has probably
spent as much time overseas gathering information for these projects as he
has spent in the UK. He is certainly one of the major military artists of
the past 20 years. Many of these fine paintings are now available as
signed edition art prints and canvases.
