Meet the incredibly talented local artist, Ashley Peck, who took his early fascinationwith aircraft to a whole new level...

I have lived in the Felixstowearea my entire life and remember being fascinated with aircraft from a very early age. My grandfather was a cabinet maker who worked on the DeHavill and Mosquito during World War II and wanting to know more about the aircraft he had helped to maintain waswhat initially sparked my interest in this particular era of aircraft.

When I was younger, I always enjoyed drawing although I never studied art beyond the age of 14.Upon leaving school, my interest in drawing seemed to slowly wane and before I knew it, it had been a number of years since I had even picked up a pencil. However, after attending the Royal International Air Tattoo in 2016, I felt the urge to draw again and promptly bought a packet of pencils from my local supermarket (the same packet that I have used to sketch out every picture since). I found it frustrating that I could not make the exact colours I wanted and decided to purchase a set of acrylic paints and brushes and 'give it ago!

I consider myself to be a self-taught artist as I am learning so much with every picture and still feel that I am a long way from where I want to be with my artwork, although I am now starting to accept that I have time to learn.

The majority of my work is focused around Royal Air Force aircraft from the Second World War era and I hope that my paintings will go some way towards telling the story of the men and women who built, flew and maintained them. I do occasionally paint modern or commercial aircraft, and feel comfortable trying any mechanical subject.

Over the last couple of years, I have been very fortunate in that I have been able to display my paintings at a small number of events held at local airfields such as Rougham and Monewden as well as Felixstowe’s Art On The Prom in 2018. Meeting people at these events has provided inspiration for more paintings and so the cycle continues.

Soon I hope to create a series of paintings with a Felixstowe connection to shine a light on the role that Felixstowe and its residents played before, during and after the conflict. If anybody has any stories that they would like to see translated to canvas, I’d love to hear them.

I’m on Facebook as A Peck Aviation Ar tand my website is www.aviationpaintings.co.uk.