the silverbox treasure fleet

there is a story behind this image that started a few years ago

one day i was wandering around a foresty kind of area at a summer camp and i saw something shimmering in the green brush. i went towards it and picked it up; it was a canteen labeled "U.S. 1918 - B.A.C.O". it was a standard-issue WWI military canteen. it had no markings on it , just a few dings and such. i'll put a picture up of it soon. i have kept it to this day.

then in our portfolio class one of our assignments was to make a painting inspired from an object. so my idea was that this canteen was stolen from a recruit by the kid in the middle of the picture. he was a group of kid treasure hunters/pirates during the early 20th century called the silverbox treasure fleet. they had their own ship and they searched the world for what kids would consider treasure , aka what adults find as useless trinkets or things to throw in closets. so they spent their time collecting things they thought were valuable for fun.

and this was kind of on accident, but from left to right each kid represents a different side of WWI/WWII era military clothing. left - british, middle - us, right - germany

this piece is a 20"x25" toned paper with conte crayon, colorized quickly in photoshop. i have not done a traditional piece this large in a very long time, but i'm glad i did it