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Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend August 13, 2005 Ashland artist Bill Phillips has made a name for himself in the world of aviation art. Ten of his paintings grace a new set of postage stamps � his second series for the U.S. Postal Service. Mail Tribune / Roy Musitelli Art that soars Ashland man’s aviation art has made its way to a postage stamp near you By DAMIAN MANN Mail Tribune Bill Phillips is renowned for the way he uses light to add drama to his aviation paintings.Yet when it was the 60-year-old Ashland artist’s chance to stand in the spotlight for 10 paintings that are printed on a new set of postage stamps, his name went overlooked in the news."It doesn’t really bother me," said Phillips, who seemed relieved to go unnoticed and said he generally tends to shy away from media coverage. This is the second time Phillips has painted aviation art for a set of postage stamps.In 1997, 20 of his paintings were reproduced on stamps. The series became the second most popular of the year, barely losing out to a cartoon character. "I missed No. 1 by a hair," he said. "Bugs Bunny beat me out."One of Phillips’ friends, Central Point resident Pete Brown, described him as unassuming and personable. Advertisement "He’s one of the greatest aviation artists anywhere," Brown said. "He’s well respected in that realm."Brown and Phillips became friends after meeting at an air show in Medford in 1997. Brown, who has helped build some of the model planes in Phillips’ workshop, is an artist in his own right, having built a model of firefighters at the 9/11 terror attacks that is now at the White House. Phillips often travels throughout the world in order to see firsthand the ship or plane that he is about to draw. An Air Force veteran who served in Vietnam, Phillips also likes to ride in the planes. "There is a tremendous adrenaline rush with high-performance flying," he said.He just finished a painting of the USS Harry S. Truman, which he said likely will grace the stateroom on the ship.In 1988, Phillips was chosen as a U.S. Navy combat artist and was awarded the Navy’s Meritorious Public Service Award and the Air Force Sergeants Association’s Americanism Medal.Phillips also was chosen for a one-man show at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in 1986. "This is more than I could ever dream of," said Phillips of his renown. He had studied law at what is now Southern Oregon University before deciding to devote himself to painting in the ’70s.Aviation art might be his specialty, but Phillips also produced a poster for the Britt Festivals in 2004 and is known for his landscapes. His wife, Kristi, runs their business matters.A large painting that he said accurately depicts the geological formations of the Grand Canyon makes his dining room feel like you’re overlooking the rim. "It took me seven and a half months to complete," he said.In his tribute to firefighters who lost their lives in the World Trade Center terrorist attacks, Phillips used a couple of local firemen as models in the painting "A Prayer for My Brother." A firefighter in Ashland for 12 years before becoming a painter, Phillips said of this work, "I wanted it to be like a picture of a knight who has an indeterminate ethnicity," he said, speaking of one of the figures in the work. "It could even be a woman."Many of Phillips’ paintings will be depicted in an upcoming book, titled "Into the Sunlit Splendor, the Aviation Art of William S. Phillips."Striving to be technically accurate in his paintings, Phillips is given to whimsy at times, particularly with his "Phillips Bay" series. "It depicts a fictional town that I can change at will," he said. Phillips said he prefers to go unnoticed through life partially because of memories of his youth when celebrities used to visit his father, William Phillips, a character actor who appeared in about 90 films, including "High Noon" and "Thirty Seconds over Tokyo." When his father was alive, other actors would heap praise on him, but when he died, they never came around to visit the family, Phillips said."We ended up on welfare when we moved up here," he remembered. With more than 1,000 paintings under his belt, Phillips said he can’t keep up with the demand for commissioned paintings and other work, such as the 10 paintings he did for the U.S. Postal Service."I grew up as a kid cutting out old air mail stamps," he said. "I never dreamed my work would be going out all over the world." Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. 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