Stormtroopers Storm a Beach Beneath the Death Star — Print & Oil Painting

The colour scheme belongs on a holiday poster. Turquoise shallows running to jade further out, white surf breaking at the left, a soft blue sky with warm cloud along the horizon, and brightness measuring around two thirds, the highest in the group. Into that the artist has put nine men in armour, wading.

They cross the frame from left to right in a loose line, knee deep, weapons held ready across the body, water breaking white around every shin. The armour is clean, hard edged and brilliantly lit, and the artist has caught the specific look of gloss white plate in strong daylight, with the sky reflected as a pale band along the top of every curved surface.

One of them is down. At the left edge a figure has gone into the water and is half submerged, the only broken shape in an otherwise even advance, and nobody near him has turned around.

Above the left horizon hangs the reason for all of this: a great sphere, unfinished, with the concave dish already set into its upper face and the rest of the frame still open, bare structural arcs curving away into nothing. It is painted pale and slightly hazy, so it reads as genuinely distant rather than pasted on.

The visual argument is the mismatch. Every element of the setting says warm shallow sea, and every element of the foreground says amphibious assault, and the artist keeps both at full strength instead of darkening the water to make the soldiers fit. From our Star Wars collection, beside the same wade painted under fire and the men responsible for the thing in the sky.