page_title: Keith Ferris
section_title: Murals
hierarchical_section_title: Keith Ferris / Career / Aviation art / Murals
caption_attribution_description: English: In this 2005 photo, Keith Ferris stands before his mural “Fortresses Under Fire” at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
context_page_description: Keith Ferris is an aviation artist whose work is displayed at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum and the National Museum of the US Air Force and has been cited as the “Dean of American Aviation Art”. His work in aircraft camouflage has transformed the approach to painting US military aircraft.
context_section_description: Ferris created two 75-foot-wide (23 m) murals for the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum, "Fortresses Under Fire" in the museum's World War II gallery and "The Evolution of Jet Aviation" in the museum's Jet Aviation gallery.
  His best-known work, the 25-foot-high (7.6 m) by 75-foot-wide (23 m) mural "Fortresses Under Fire", depicts with historical accuracy a World War II Boeing B-17 "Flying Fortress" bomber, named Thunderbird, under attack during its 70th mission on 15 August 1944. In a 1989 interview with The New York Times, Ferris described how he scaled up the working image, using a grid system—with fine squares for the working image and coarse squares for the mural—and completed each portion working from left to right, using correspondingly larger paint brushes. The mural took approximately 135 days of planning and 75 days of execution.
  The second 75-foot-wide (23 m) mural, "The Evolution of Jet Aviation", depicts 27 historically significant jet aircraft, including the first and the fastest, and models from eight nations and from 20 aircraft manufacturers.
caption: Ferris visits his mural “Fortresses Under Fire” at the National Air and Space Museum in 2005.
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