Captain helps identify paintings’ creator - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Captain helps identify paintings’ creator

A curious captain in Boston, a few mouse clicks and — voila! — a 25-year mystery in Colorado Springs, Colo., solved.

Capt. Kim Huber downplays what she did, but leaders at Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, Colo., tried to find out who painted nine works hanging in the base’s technical support building and couldn’t. Their only clue: “T. Patterson,” the signature in the bottom right corner of each canvas.

Since the mid-1980s, the paintings have been fixtures at Cheyenne, hanging in offices and conference rooms. Before that, though, they sat for years in a storage closet in another building.

Huber, assigned to Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., learned about the 3-by-4-foot paintings last month on www.af.mil, the service’s official website.

Cheyenne officials, according to the article, had succeeded in getting the once-abandoned works included in the Air Force Art Collection — a first for the program.

The story left Huber wondering about T. Patterson. He knew a lot about flight: Each picture represents an era in aviation, from a hot air balloon to F-15 Eagles.

“That’s really sad that they don’t know who this guy is,” Huber recalled thinking.

So, Huber called up Microsoft’s search engine Bing, typed in “Patterson CO artist military” and, in seconds, discovered a link to an art gallery website for Terrance Patterson, a Colorado native who worked as a commercial artist and exhibits designer for the Defense Department. He retired in 1979 and died in 1991

“I honestly thought I wouldn’t find anything,” she said. “It was just on a whim.”

Huber’s success delighted Cheyenne officials, many of whom had done searches on Google and turned up nothing. Jeff Lucas, test control division chief for the 721st Mission Support Group, had even used the same keywords as Huber.

“I ... went through 20 pages on Google,” Lucas said, “and still didn’t see anything.”

Huber contacted the gallery in Colorado Springs — only about 10 miles from the base — and told the Patterson family about the paintings.

Patterson’s son, Todd Patterson, remembers the paintings well. His father labored over the project for a year, meticulously checking to make sure the timeline of events was correct and carefully positioning the subjects on the canvas.

“He did them as part of his job, for decoration,” Todd Patterson said in a telephone interview.

After Terrance Patterson retired, the artist “lost track of the paintings,” according to Todd Patterson.

Today, Cheyenne officials are planning to honor the artist with a plaque and are arranging for his family to visit the base.

“I’m just really happy we’ve been able to connect the artist to his work,” Huber said.