Many a man desirous of joining H. M. Forces, but not wishingsto enlist in the Army, has been torn between the rival claims of the Navy and the Air Force. Mr. Norman Wilkinson, the distinguished artist, is attached to both. He holds the rank of Air-Commodore in the R.A.F. and Lieut-Cmdr. in the R.N.V.R. The Senior Service was his first love, but he now works from an ofüce in the Air Ministry, directing camouflage activities for both Air Force and Navy.
It was while travelling in a train to London during the last war that Norman Wilkinson conceived the idea of painting the hull of a ship so as to make the vessel look smaller and create the illusion that she was going in the opposite direction. From the terminus he drove post-haste to the Admiralty, full of his brain-wave. Naval experts were sceptical, but allowed him to experiment with a trawler. The results convinced them "dazzling" had come to stay for the duration.
"The artist has been equally successful with camouflage from the air. Very thorough preparations are made. Before the designs are planned objectives are photographed from varying heights, in all weathers, and at different times.
Quite a number of modern artists have found scope for their talent in the utilitarian work of camouflage. Of some it has been said, perhaps unkindly, that their paintings always did look like something else! An old-time artist who would have been fertile in the production of ideas for camouflage is that 15th century inventive genius, Leonardo da Vinci, who has been in the news recently because of the Italian claim for possession of the Mona Lisa.
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