Retro Dude: Dan Šenkeřík

One of the most exciting things about our Facebook page is that it exposes us to the many talented and interesting people that make up our community. It serves as an excellent platform for you, our faithful readers, to share your talents and passions with a likeminded and open community and an opportunity for us to help bring your artistic endeavours to the world.

One such man is Dan Šenkeřík. Born in the Czech Republic in 1975, he is an artist and graphic designer who fell in love with Formula One and motorsport in his childhood. Twelve years ago he made the brave decision to pursue his dream and began painting, hoping to bring the love of racing, cars and heroic drivers to the Czech Republic.

He works primarily with acrylics and oils and has a wonderful style that melds the realistic with a painterly impressionism. His cars are beautifully detailed and realistic and work perfectly against his impressionistic, vibrant backdrops. He says that he endeavours to capture a sense of speed with his work and I think he does an amazing job of it.

I have always loved abstract and impressionist works, so I guess it is no surprise that I am drawn to Jody Scheckter’s six wheeled Elf-Tyrrell, the perspective in the Dan Gurney painting and Dan’s use of colour, perspective and abstraction everywhere.

I mostly love that Dan is living the dream, doing what he loves, engrossing himself in the love of motorsport, meeting his heroes and stunning them with his incredible talent.

Dan’s dream is to be profiled in Octane or Classic and Sports Car magazine and to be able to paint fulltime. We wish him all the best with this and having seen his incredible talent, are sure he will make it!

Thanks to Dan Šenkeřík for allowing us to share his work! Hit up his website at www.p1gallery.cz for more of his fantastic paintings, or stop by our Facebook and I’m sure you’ll encounter the man himself.

Please continue reading for Dan’s own story.

I am Daniel Senkerik from the Czech Republic. I was born in 1975. I am an artist and graphic designer. I finished faculty of art as a sculptor.

From my childhood I was keen on formula one. Niki Lauda was the hero of my childhood (so when I met him few years ago – I fullfilled one of my dreams). I loved painting and cars and 12 years ago I painted my first painting. It was a picture of my favourite Moss-Jenkinson SLR, from Mille Miglia 55. (I still have this one at home and don’t take it to any exhibitions, because it is now signed by Kimi Raikkonen and Mick Doohan)

I work with acrylics and oils and sometimes do some sculpting.

At first I was only panting cars, but have since started to paint portraits of drivers. I love all eras of motorsport; silver arrows, 50s, 60s, 70s. I am trying to capture the sense of speed with my paintings.

I have had about 20 exhibitions in the Czech Republic.

Here in the Czech Republic we don’t have any occasion to see great car races or meet the heroes, so for two years I moved to England to BE THERE, to see the cars, stars, heroes of my childhood.

I was surprised at how many painters are there.

Here in Czech the automobilia was an unknown word. Here only a few painters are doing it, here there is no history in our garages (it´s all about communism, they stopped importing any western cars and we didn’t have a car racing on TV). Now everything changes with the internet.

So I decided to change it a little bit and thanks to my hobby, I could meet some great heroes of mine. (Jody Scheckter, Kimi Raikkonen, David Coulthard, Niki Lauda, Mick Doohan and others) Some of them have my paintings. I am working step by step to fulfil my dream.

My dream is to have my profile in Octane, or Classic and Sports car magazine and to do this as a fulltime job.

You can see my picture gallery at www.p1gallery.cz

With compliments and have a nice day

Dan Šenkeřík

We know that we have an incredibly talented community out there, so please don’t hesitate to hit up our Facebook page or Twitter, or drop us a line to share your retro motorsport themed creativity. Whether it be painting, photography, interpretive yo-yo or films, we’d love to hear from you.

Seth Reinhardt

Images courtesy of Dan Šenkeřík