Don Wilkie; Recent Drawings and Paintings

Don Wilkie has had a lifelong love affair with aircraft and making art.

From a very young age he could be found drawing and painting aircraft to decorate his bedroom walls, later graduating to creating realistic aircraft models that festooned the bedroom ceiling.

Poor eyesight ended a long held dream to join the Air Force and he opted for a career in the print industry.

Wilkie moved to Napier around 1995 and quickly become immersed in community activities holding positions on the board of trustees with the local museum and the Art Deco Trust.

In 2012 time allowed Wilkie to pursue his art and after purchasing oils and canvas he tried his hand at painting. Success followed quickly and after posting his first painting up on Facebook, he had a request for a commission for a painting to raise funds for the local Air Training Corp. raising over $3000 for the organisation.

Since then Wilkie’s career has blossomed with numerous exhibitions and request for commissions.

His meticulous research into the history of aviation adds a further dimension, and the realistic level of detail in his work has found a worldwide audience, with most of his work going to Australian, English and USA collections.

Some of his work on permanent display at the Museum of Transport and Technology in Auckland.

Self-taught, Don Wilkie enjoys the challenge of setting new artistic goals and has added portrait, landscape and seascapes as part of his painting repertoire.