Miss Mitchell

"Miss Mitchell" Acrylics on canvas, 18x24, 2/11/2020. I still have it.

Story behind this painting. During WWII, my father flew in a B-25 squadron with the US Army Corps, Flying Tigers of the 14th Air Force, 68th Air Service Group, 12th Squadron, in the China-Burma-India theater. This was his aircraft. Well, one of only a couple anyway. He was not a pilot, but chief crewman on the plane. I don't know if that's him in the pilot seat or not. For this painting I worked from an old black & white family photograph. The photograph is the only picture of this aircraft we ever saw. It was from circa 1944. Probably in the vicinity of Kunming, China. I say one of only a couple of his airplanes because one of them was shot down. Obviously he survived, and continued flying missions once he was repatriated with his unit. I have searched on line extensively and have never come across another picture of 'this' Miss Mitchell. So I think this may have been the one that was shot down. There is another B-25 "Miss Mitchell" that flys around with the WarBirds restored aircraft from WWII. But it is documented that that particular Miss Mitchell served in the European theater during the war. Additionally, dad painted the nose art on this airplane himself. As a talented sign painter before he enlisted in the Army, many squadrons sought out his services and consequently he ended up painting the nose art of many US aircraft in the theater. Our family has photographs of a few of them.