ORIGINAL ARTWORK
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For more than two decades, BrandNet has commissioned original artworks to tell Australian military stories. These paintings became the source of limited-edition prints, medallions, collectables and gifts that found their way into thousands of Australian homes. The original paintings themselves were never sold. They have remained in the BrandNet Archives ever since.
Now, for the first time, the originals are being offered to collectors. Unlike the numbered editions that came after it, the original is not one of a limited edition. It is a true one of one. There is only one original, and once it is sold it leaves the BrandNet Archives and will never be available again.
Catalina: Black Cat in the Shadows is the original acrylic on canvas by Australian aviation artist Drew Harrison, from the Iconic Aviation Collection, the six-painting series commissioned to celebrate aircraft that shaped Royal Australian Air Force history. It depicts Catalina A24-362, OX-V of No. 43 Squadron RAAF, flown by Flight Lieutenant John Paine and crew into the Sawu Sea on 21 July 1945, searching for targets and harassing Japanese installations, one of the long, lonely operations the Black Cats continued almost until Japan’s surrender.
The Catalina was never fast, heavily armoured or glamorous. What it possessed was something Australia desperately needed in the Pacific War: extraordinary range. The RAAF flew more than 150 Catalinas between 1941 and 1945 on patrol, long-range bombing, reconnaissance and air-sea rescue missions, many lasting 18 hours or more. As operations moved into darkness, the aircraft were painted black and became known as the Black Cats. Their most remarkable work was precision minelaying at night: flying only metres above the water, crews placed mines in enemy harbours and shipping routes across the Netherlands East Indies and as far north as the approaches to China. Around 70 per cent of RAAF Catalina missions were long-range offensive strikes, and 173 airmen lost their lives in Catalina operations.
The Catalina offered Harrison an unusual visual problem: much of its most important combat work occurred at night, when the aircraft was deliberately difficult to see. He turned that limitation into the defining character of the painting. A24-362 emerges from the darkness, its broad parasol wing instantly recognisable, but the black finish lets much of the aircraft merge into the night. Light is used sparingly, and concealment becomes part of the visual language: the aircraft is present but never entirely exposed, mirroring the mission itself, long-range Australian aircraft moving quietly through hostile skies.
The original is the unique source work behind the Catalina limited-edition canvas, paper and aluminium artworks, preserving a distinctly Australian Pacific War story: the crews who turned a slow flying boat into a formidable long-range night aircraft.
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