Before his stained glass ‘Spitfires’ of 2015 to 2016, Brian Clarke first explored the subject of the iconic fighter plane through drawings, and a painting series. In these works, the recognisable form of the Spitfire is transformed into light, shadow and pattern.

In his essay ‘Spitfires and Cotton Mills’ from the 2020 monograph Brian Clarke: Spitfires, Clarke explains,

‘When the shape is repeated at regular intervals it generates a wholly heraldic pattern that yet, somehow, manages to hold on to the deep throaty growl of history.’