Life Imitating Art

Atmosphere and emotion are two ingredients I have tried to incorporate into my painting. It was Tony Kydd, the features editor of Motor Magazine in the late 1940s who said to me, “Without attention to background, scenery, and people you lose so much in a picture, it’s not good enough just to draw the car.” Being a bit of a free spirit, it was a jolly good job that I became a freelance artist and not a staff artist, as I had originally intended. It would be very difficult to express on canvas the ambiance of a place or event without experiencing it at firsthand. Most of my notes, however, were taken with a camera. I remember in the early days spending three or four hours sketching, people would get in the way, and invariably the cars I sketched would retire on the first lap or crash and I would find that I had wasted time. A camera allowed me to take many photographs from which I would be able to put together the drawing I would want. It would also allow me to examine the technical aspects of the cars. When aerodynamics first appeared, I was at Spa at an evening practice. Ferrari, Brabham and, of course, Lotus were experimenting with winglets and flippers. I positioned myself at the Masta kink watching the cars coming out. They were moving bloody quick. It was when I developed the pictures that I noticed those cars with the wings sat nearer to the ground than those without. At the next race at the Nürburgring I showed the photos to an intrigued Bruce McLaren, who borrowed them for a few days. It must be remembered that it was a time of “feeling in the dark” for aerodynamic work on racing cars.

I remember taking one of my paintings of the ’63 Belgian Grand Prix to Oulton Park to show Jimmy Clark, who had won the race with Lotus a few weeks before. He studied the picture for a while in the corner of the paddock, then turned to a colleague, remarking, “Christ, he’s even got the right number of tread grooves on the tire.” I was always aware and conscious that detail was important, and Jimmy’s remark was very important. It is not good enough when those in “the know” say, “Nice picture, but he’s got that bit wrong.” Movement in suspension, tires, and drivers’ attitudes in the cockpit are very important. Jimmy Clark had a particular way of tilting his head. Graham Hill was a bit more upright and rigid, concentrating a lot more. These things you only pick up from close involvement. I was, and continue to be, very passionate about motor racing, needing to be at the hub of the action, visiting continental races, South African races, all I might say, at my own expense. I wanted to be there though discovering firsthand what it was like, going a few days earlier than everyone else to explore the different backgrounds. It didn’t always work; sometimes I would walk for what seemed like miles struggling in the undergrowth only to be disappointed with the result.