“Aviation was my first artistic love,” says William S. Phillips, “but my true, enduring love remains my Christian faith, home and family. So it is my pleasure to combine all of it in my work. The historical aviation subjects, I research; the contemporary and nostalgic subjects, I live.”

Phillips grew up loving art but never thought he could make it his livelihood. At college he majored in criminology, and he had been accepted into law school when four of his paintings were sold at an airport restaurant. That was all the incentive he needed to begin his work as a fine art painter.

Bill Phillips is now the aviation artist of choice for many American heroes and the nostalgic landscape artist of choice for many collectors. Bill’s strengths as a landscape painter are what gave him an edge in the aviation field: respect and reverence for a time and place. When one sees his aviation pieces, thoughts are about the courageous individuals who risked their lives for our freedom. In Bill’s nostalgic works, the viewer understands fully what that freedom is... the precious values that make life worth living.

After one of his paintings was presented to King Hussein of Jordan, Phillips was commissioned by the Royal Jordanian Air Force. He developed sixteen major paintings, many of which now hang in the Royal Jordanian Air Force Museum in Amman. The Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum presented a one-man show of Phillips’ work in 1986; he is one of only a few artists to have been so honored.

In 1988, Phillips was chosen to be a U.S. Navy combat artist. For his outstanding work, the artist was awarded the Navy’s Meritorious Public Service Award and the Air Force Sergeants Association’s Americanism Medal. In 1991, three of Phillips’ works were chosen as part of the top 100 in “Art for the Parks,” the prestigious annual fund-raiser for the National Park Service, and one painting received the “Art History Award” from the National Park Foundation.

William S. Phillips Signed & Numbered Limited Edition Print "Evasive Action Over Sagami Bay"

Shortly after bombing the Tokyo Gas and Electric Company, Pilot Lt. Harold F.Watson banks the B-25 Whirling Dervish steeply to avoid a Japanese cruiser that lay directly on the aircraft’s escape route to China. It was the ninth of sixteen aircraft to leave the carrier USS Hornet on the audacious April 18, 1942 Doolittle Raid on Japan. That United States Army Air Forces bombers could launch from a U.S. Navy aircraft carrier was inconceivable at the time. President Roosevelt claimed the aircraft came from a secret airbase in the mythical Shangri-La. American bombers striking the Japanese homeland and passing within sight of Mount Fuji, the most sacred mountain in all Japan, delivered a succinct message to the warring Axis nation: America, the Sleeping Giant, had begun to stir.

Evasive Action Over Sagami Bay is an authentic historical document, offered as both a fine art print and canvas edition, countered-signed by American heroes that participated in the Doolittle Raid. This is a unique opportunity to own and preserve an important moment in aviation and U.S. military history.

This 22" by 22" Image Size Limited Edition Print, edition size 200, is signed by the artist and co-signed by American heroes that participated in the Doolittle Raid.

It is also available in the following format:

30" by 34" Limited Edition Canvas, edition size 100 - $1,250.00

All Limited Edition prints are signed and numbered (S/N) by the artist. Limited Edition prints are restricted to a certain number. For example, if 400 prints are made from an original painting, once they’re gone, that’s it. There is no limit to the number of open edition prints of a particular painting. That’s why Limited Edition prints are more expensive — and more valuable to collectors — than "open" edition. Rare objects are more valuable.

All Limited Edition artwork is subject to availability at time of order. Although seller strives to remain currrent as to inventory, seller reserves the right to cancel a sale if item is no longer available at time of purchase.