FROM THE READER
Aviation Artist Rick Herter
AVIATION ARTIST RICK HERTER
Considered one of the foremost aviation artists working today, Rick Herter’ s dynamic paintings capture the passion, history and iconic aircraft of the past, present and future.
Rick Herter Aviation Artisttist
Rick was born on a rural farm near Dowagiac, Michigan. Like many youngsters, he spent countless hours staring up at the sky and dreaming of flight. The Herter farm was on the training track for local student pilots and Rick watched Piper Cubs and Cessnas flying lazily over the fields where he worked. His first flight experience was on his 13th birthday. The local airport manager had been a WWII B-24 pilot in a Cessna Aerobat. After that first airplane ride, Rick was bitten by all things aviation related.
During his high school years Rick would fly with local pilots, hang around the small county airport and learn as much as he could about military aviation and aviation history.
In 1980, Herter left Dowagiac to attend college where he eventually earned a BA in Art in 1984. Fortuitously, during the‘ 80s, the new genre of aviation art burst onto the scene and had a meteoric rise in popularity as a new collectable form of fine art. During this same time, Herter relocated to Kalamazoo, Michigan and began working as a commercial artist in the advertising field. It was almost by accident that while working as a commercial artist, Rick was commissioned to create the souvenir poster art for one of the largest airshows in the country.
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