FMHA is pleased to offer an initial limited run of prints of the Paul Rendel painting, “Fire Mission – Fort Miles.”
The following selections are available:
- Framed prints of the painting both with and without the Fort Miles Museum and FMHA logos. These are priced as follows:
- Signed by Artist: $40.00
- Unsigned: $30.00
- Unframed print packages: $15.00. Each package contains the 8” x 10” print, an 11” x 14” mat and an 11” x 14” solid backing piece. These are suitable for standard size framing.
Prints may be ordered online and picked up at the Fort Miles Museum, which is open Tuesday – Saturday, 10 am – 4 pm or shipped to your domestic address.
Milton Delaware based artist Paul Rendel, a number of whose works are on display at the Visiting Artists Gallery inside Battery 519 at the Fort Miles Museum and other museums worldwide, began this painting as a sketch in November 2019. The sketch was of the 12-inch artillery gun exhibit in the South Gun Room of Battery 519 at the Museum. As the oil painting evolved from the initial sketch, Paul added a gun crew who manned one of the two the 12-inch artillery guns in place at Fort Miles during World War II. The painting depicts a fire mission as it may have occurred during the war if a German warship tried to breach the American coastline and waterways leading to Wilmington and Philadelphia.
The scene moves from an unseen shell leaving the barrel of the gun in the background back to the Officer-in Charge (left forefront). The officer is likely looking at a shell (out of the painting) that is being transported by the overhead rail system from the adjoining shell room in the battery. As can be seen the next shell to be shot is held in place by two members of the gun crew and will then be placed on the wheeled shell cart. In the meantime, the breech of the gun is being swabbed to prepare for the shell to be inserted into the gun tube once it is placed on the shell cart. Once the shell is loaded into the breech, four seventy pound powder bags will follow to ready the gun to fire the next shell.
