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Immortalise your classic on canvas

by Geoff Thornley

Originally from New Zealand, I settled in UK in 1991,and have only been an artist since 1997,when I was able to devote more time to pursuing art more seriously than in previous years. In the 80's I started using an airbrush, painting spacescenes, small pieces that were colourful, but prone to quick fading due to the dye inks. I experimented with all manner of media and materials, going through watercolours, oils chalks etc until settling on acrylics as they dry very quickly and most importantly, can be painted over to hide mistakes.

I also experimented in styles and subject matter, as whilst I was selling a few pieces, stars and planets were not great sellers overall. Having grown up with a love of cars, they were not my first choice in subject matter. Again it is a specialised market and having decided that I wanted to earn money from art, I had to paint things that the majority of people wanted to buy. Landscapes and abstracts and several other subjects were the accepted forms until one day I came across a photo of a 1903 Mercedes trundling across a dirt road with driver and passenger hanging on for dear life, and thought it would make a great painting, as it was full of atmosphere (only one who thinks so as still have it).

As a first attempt it was not bad, but the perspective is not quite right. The trouble with painting from a photograph, is that often the lenses used to create a 'great' shot full of drama, are usually a derivative of a fisheye lens which distorts things, even if only slightly, and if you don't correct things when painting, you end up with a car that in reality would look nine feet wide at the front and two foot wide at the rear. Mine wasn't that bad, but but it did look as if it had pram wheels at the back.

Undeterred, I began to paint more cars and found that I really enjoyed it, so began to advertise for customers. I was lucky enough to get several who owned a number of classic cars that wanted them immortalised on canvas. As well as the cars, I still paint all manner of subjects as I find that I become bored with things very quickly, and just painting one theme can lead to a stale and tired feeling that filters through to the canvas. Doing all sorts of work keeps me fresh as well as my art.

The paintings take roughly 20-30 hours to complete spread out over a week or two depending on what other commitments I have. I only paint on canvas board which is cheaper than stretch canvas and stronger, more durable which also suits my style of work. I very rarely draw anything. I am not a natural artist,and although I studied art at school, drawing and making sketches of things was not my strong suit. I work from photographs, which I either come across by chance, which interest me enough to develop a painting from, though after having seen the latter, you would sometimes be hard pressed to see the connection with the former. As I said, there are problems working from photographs, I tend to enlarge the photo, photocopy it, dissect it, paste it around, recopy it then copy it onto the board so that I get the outline and the scale of the car exactly right... from there everything else is imagination and brush. Some paintings develop out of really nothing BUT imagination.

The Tortoise and the Hare began as nothing more than a photograph of a Bugatti grill attached to a bare chassis. But I loved that grill, it looks imposing, and is a work of art on its own, so I painted it attaching a body and two fearless characters facing straight ahead. The scenery was flat either side and the painting was not finished somehow. I attached a few hills at the back and a few balloons at the side with a tent or two to add interest, but still it looked unfinished. The Mig33 just adds that something that ties it all together. A race of old and new, technology worlds apart.

I do less auto commissions now than I did, preferring to paint that which fascinates me and subjects that I love, regardless of whether it is financially viable or not. If someone likes it enough to buy it, great.

My greatest artistic thrill was being accepted as a member into the Guild Of Motoring Artists. Sadly due to family illness and erratic work commitments I have been unable to devote the time and the commitment to the Guild exhibitions and meetings that membership warrants, and felt it unfair that I should enjoy the benefits without contributing much in return. Hopefully I will be able to rejoin the Guild sooner rather than later.

My first recollection of things automotive was my fathers dark green 1938 ford V8. It was prone to breaking down quite a lot, but perched high on the back seat with an uninterrupted view out the front window, it was pure magic. That along with buying car magazines, mainly American Hot Rod and custom cars, fuelled my lust for machinery. My first car was a 1936 flatback sedan, complete with continental kit (a rare car even then),that had been up dated with a 48 merc flathead, with drum brakes in place of the cable units. It went and stopped like a bullet, but only rarely, as it never started when I wanted it to, and never really stopped when I wanted to either. I paid $250 NZ for it in 1970(about£80). Followed a succession of Mk 1 and 2 Zephyrs, an A40 Devon, Morris oxfords and about twenty or thirty other cars until I bought a 1956 Chev Belair, which was in fantastic condition, low mileage low owner. About that time I had finished an apprenticeship to be a printer, and went to work in a panelbeaters and paintspray workshop to learn the trade, as I had just joined the local Chev club and had a whole host of new mates that wanted cars customised and painted. That old Chev had more paint jobs than I've had hot dinners. It was painted twice in one week once as I experimented with some shade of purple that looked good on whatever it was that I had seen it on, but did not translate well to the slab side of a huge tank fourteen feet long.

A 1964 Dodge Polara followed the Chev, another great car that was so quiet you had to look at the rev counter to see if the motor had started or not, you simply couldn’t hear anything. The guy I worked for also did restoration work on a number of classic cars and many an old MG fuel tank or wing was rebuilt or completely replaced with new metal sculpted into the original. Unfortunately paint in the 70's was all nitro lacquer and very corrosive on the lungs, after a few years I had to give it up, and with one thing and another, travel and houses and boring things, my lust for cars waned dramatically. Today it is confined to dreaming on canvas.