Richard Johnson - Combat Artist

I just found out about the "Kandahar Journal", an artist's blog by Richard Johnson. He's with Canadian forces in Afghanistan right now. Richard is an excellent artist, a fine draftsman who really captures the spirit of his subjects. And he has an eye for the telling detail. Go visit the blog, bookmark it, and visit often. This guy is worth following.

Marine Corps Combat Artist

All of the services have a combat artist program. A couple of years ago, while I was working on the "Meditation on War" series, I tried to do some work with them. It never happened. The Army, Navy, and Air Force had their funding zeroed out, while the Marine Corps had an artist on active duty. I never found out who that was, but today I did. His name is Kris Battles. He's a talented, skilled, and trained painter and sculptor who is currently deployed to the operations in Haiti. Take a look at his blog and his web site. The guy is good.