'The Australian SAS' - commissioned for the SASR 50th Anniversary, painted by lan Coate.
About the Artist
Ian joined the army in the late 80's and was trained to be an Illustrator Reprographic and Military Photographer in the Royal Australian Army Survey Corp. In the mid 90's, lan discharged from the army to pursue a career as an artist/illustrator.
Since then, he has produced various illustrations for magazines and books. He has acted as a visual historian, creating artworks for numerous museums collectors worldwide.
About the Artwork
Behind the scenes
As a military artist, I was very excited and honoured (also a little nervous) to be asked to produce an artwork to celebrate the Australian SAS's 50th birthday. As military artworks go - this was the big one. Luckily, the Association assigned me two capable blokes (Adrian Blacker & Gary Kingston) who had firm ideas of how the SAS should be represented.
We tossed around a few ideas and soon decided to go with a visual timeline concept. After a few basic drawings, Adrian rounded up some soldiers to act as models (a better choice I could not have found using professional models) and the SASR Historical Foundation graciously equipped them with period uniforms and weaponry for a photo shoot. Hugh Donald drove the camera and gave me a selection of images of such high standard it was difficult to choose which ones to finally use. From that selection I sketched numerous different layouts until we agreed on the one shown below.
The Browning Stage
The next stage was painting the layout onto canvas. With a pencil, I measured and lightly outlined the main image and then I overlayed it with brown paint (Burnt Umber) on all the images except the CT figure in which I painted black.
Colouring
The colours are very significant in this painting.
The blue background represents the sea, the Australian flag and the SASR flag. Gary Kingston came up with a ripper idea to colour Australia to represent the sandy beret.
I used Medium No. 1 to thin the oil paints then glazed over the brown.
Choosing the Images
Choosing the background images was never going to be easy. No matter which ones you choose, someone would always feel slighted.
Thankfully, members of the Committee made some of the harder decisions. Adrian Blacker was indispensable at this point. He generously gave his advice and time in finding that one image that sums up an entire sentiment.
The Painting's Meaning
The five central figures represent the different periods in the SAS Regiment's history, (1st - Company Days & Borneo, 2nd - Vietnam, 3rd - The Training Years & CT, 4th - Peacekeeping & Timor, 5th - Middle East). These figures stand together as a wall protecting Australia which is coloured to represent the hard-won sandy beret.
The blue ocean, behind the Southern Cross, represents the Australian flag, and behind the winged dagger represents the SASR banner. Finally, the sea of historical images pays homage to the versatility and sacrifice of the SAS soldier.
Source: Jubilee Rendezvous 2007