Jerry Crandall Bio

Jerry Crandall’s Original Historical Aviation Paintings

Jerry Crandall’s special love of history, fascination for artifacts and an honest dedication to research, bring reality into each of his paintings. His creations sparkle with clear realism, are painstakingly rendered, possess underlying technical accuracy and strive for historical authenticity.

Jerry was born in La Junta, Colorado. Over the years he has been a guest on numerous radio and television talk shows across the country including the NBC Sunday show in LA twice, the Mike Douglas Television show and numerous local TV and Radio stations. He has given hundreds of lectures to students on achievement, and to historians, authors, modelers and the general public about his career, artwork, research and more. Early in 2007 Jerry appeared on DOGFIGHTS providing historical background for several of their WWII programs. In addition he has served as actor and consultant for various shows that have appeared on the A&E Network, Discovery and The History Channel. Feature articles about Jerry and his work have appeared in numerous publications including Southwest Art, Art Voices South, Man at Arms, Prints, Air Classics and more.

“Listed in Who\’s Who in American Art, International Who’s Who of Contemporary Achievement, Who\’s Who in the West, Who\’s Who in America among others, he is also listed in Contemporary Western Artists, and The Challenge Publications Aviation Art Series. His pieces can be found in numerous private as well as many public collections and museums such as the Favell Museum of Western Art, Oregon; Confederate Air Force, National Air and Space Museum, D.C.; USAF Museum, Dayton; Naval Museum, Pensacola; Monino Air Museum, Moscow and the HQ of the Italian Air Force. He holds associate memberships in several aviation history groups as well. In addition he has written and published six books dealing with WWII aviation and assisted in the historical research for restoration of several WWII aircraft.

Recognized as one of the top Luftwaffe historians, he continues to research WWII aircraft, specifically the Fw 190 D for colors, markings and variants applying his knowledge not only to his paintings but to four highly-acclaimed books he wrote about the D-9 and the men who flew this late war aircraft.

Over the years, Jerry has amassed a large collection of artifacts, period photos, interviewed pilots and ground crews who participated in WWII, (American, British, German and Japanese), The Korean conflict, the Gulf of Sidra Incident, pilots with Top Gun, The Blue Angels and more, all of which are used as research material for his Western paintings. He is an avid collector, an intense historian and a talented artist —an electrifying union producing thrilling, rich expressions of history.

One specialty in which he excels is capturing a true likeness of character in portraiture, whether it be a specific recognized pilot,  historical old west persona or a family portrait. Collectors eagerly seek out Jerry Crandall’s artwork with extremely successful commissions or with other originals sold as they are developed. A highly successful artist, Jerry’s work has been in print since 1977 with more than 60 of his paintings reproduced in limited edition collector prints in both the Western Art and Aviation Art venues, a number of which are now sold out commanding collector secondary market prices.