Aviation in Art — Courtney Canova’s mural in DeLand FL

Aviation in Art — Courtney Canova’s mural in DeLand FL

29º 01′ 42″ N / 81º 18′ 11″ W

DeLand is a small artistic town near Daytona in Florida. This town is full of art, quaint boutique shops of food and sundries, as well as restored buildings from the first half of the 20^th century — but the murals painted on the sides of the buildings are noticed first. These are no simple murals since they are full of details as they portray either culture or vignettes of life in DeLand’s past as well as present. This mural is on the south face of the building located on the NW corner of US 92 and W New York Avenue in DeLand FL.

Information about the DeLand NAS and artist on the mural — photo by Joe May

For a short time during WW II this town was also the location of DeLand Naval Air Station with the mission of training airmen in the U.S. Navy. The base had several aircraft types operating from its facility and they can all be seen in a wide colorful mural done by artist Courtney Canova. His work illustrates the airfield, now DeLand Municipal Airport, the aircraft and some of the life.

View of the DeLand NAS mural toward the east along W New York Ave — photo by Joe May

View of the DeLand NAS mural toward the west along W New York Ave — photo by Joe May

Happy mural aviators fly a Douglas SBD Dauntless in the skies over DeLand — photo by Joe May

A Grumman F4F Wildcat buzzing the DeLand NAS in Courtney Canova's mural — photo by Joe May

But there is more! Mr. Canova also brings emotion to the work with facial expressions and body language with which we can all empathize, perhaps not a rare style component among mural artists but unusual in my humble opinion.

This mural is very real in this detail since no one loves pulling guard duty— photo by Joe May

Courtney Canova, mural artist, who created the DeLand NAS mural — photo by Joe May

DeLand is also host to the DeLand Naval Air Station Museum which is charming. A post was published almost a year ago (though I was unaware of DeLand’s murals at the time) and can easily be found by pasting the name into the search window and selecting ENTER.