G. J. Giddins Studio of Military Art

Gerald Giddins has always had a love of art, spending many hours drawing and painting from a young age. During his education his interest grew and he progressed to oil painting, his preferred medium to this day. His first career as an Engineer brought him into contact with the modern armed services but his military interest was forever in ages past. Recently, Gerald has specialised in the Great War for particular reasons. As he states,

"The more I learn of the terrible loss of life and conditions in which men were expected to live and fight, the greater my passion to capture heroic moments that feature the ordinary soldiery. 1914 - 1918 was hailed as "the war to end all wars"; if that were only true the loss could be argued to have justification. Instead, it was merely the waste of a generation."

"Anybody that visits the military graves of northern France can not fail to be moved by the feeling of loss. The unacceptable repetition of the inscription "An unknown soldier" strikes the observer very early on. How could a continent having endured such an obscene purge of life and squandering of resources, some twenty odd years later repeat the carnage. The Great War will always be regarded as the sacrifice of a generation for no apparent gains."

Now that Gerald's talent in this field is being recognised, his work is being sought by museums and organisations with an interest in military history. His work "Morning 1st July 1916 the Buffs at the Somme" has featured in a major exhibition of Great War images and currently hangs in the Princess of Wales Royal Regiment and Queens Museum at Dover Castle. Another Regiment is currently reviewing his work, "The Gathering Storm - The Royal Horse Artillery at Third Ypres", with a view to exhibiting at their Museum.

His canvas of a French officer carrying the Tricolour, leading his men on an attack in the Champagne region is nearing completion and it is Gerald's intention to offer the work to a French museum or gallery.

These and other works by Gerald Giddins are available as art prints, and are on sale via this site and at selected museums throughout the UK.

Other works planned for the immediate future include a canvas of the storming of the bridge of Riqueval, St Quentin by Captain Charlton of the North Staffordshire Regiment, the return of a British trench raiding party on the western front, and a work depicting Pershing"s "Doughboys" in the first American offensive of the Great War.

For an update of these works watch this space.

Why does Gerald paint military art, especially the Great War?

"It comes from the heart. These paintings are not created for selling prints, they are my gesture for the men who fought and died in their millions in those terrible inhuman conditions. If I paint nothing but the Great War to the day I die, it will only scratch the surface in honouring those courageous men."

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