Fly-In, Santee SC grew out of a lifelong fascination with airplanes. As a boy in the 1930s, Bill Suttles was captivated by biplanes, then still relatively new aircraft, an interest that remained with him throughout his life and periodically found its way into his paintings. A number of his works from the 1960s feature aircraft and scenes associated with flying.
Decades later, Suttles attended an annual “fly-in” in Santee, South Carolina, where biplane enthusiasts and collectors gathered by doing exactly what the name suggests—flying their own aircraft to the event. He loved the experience.
Rather than presenting the airplane as a carefully rendered mechanical object, Suttles painted the memory of the gathering: figures beneath the wing, brilliant sunlight, machinery, movement, and the atmosphere of people brought together by a shared enthusiasm.
Painted in oil on panel, Fly-In, Santee SC measures 12 × 12 inches (20 × 20 inches framed). The painting was sold through District Gallery in Knoxville, Tennessee, in 2015.
