Retro Motorsport Art: Joel Clark

Motorsport demands tremendous artistry.

Some of it makes the cars go faster – the design of the aero, chassis, or running gear. Some of it pays for the cars to go faster, attracts people to events and entertains them while they’re there . Then, of course, there is the performance art that happens at hundreds of kilometers an hour with inches separating the performers each and every time a driver gets in a race car.

Motorsport also inspires tremendous artistry, such as these paintings by Joel Clark. Joel is an artist working in the medium of paint, inspired by motorsport in its golden years and its motions and emotions. He tells his story well, so read on and enjoy it, and check out his marvelous retro motorsport art featuring drivers like Hunt, Fangio, Hill and Tazio Nuvolari in the gallery below.

Head to his website here.

Joel Clark. Artist.

Motorsport has been the only sport I have ever had a passion for. Kicked-off by a love for all things with an engine – thanks to my father being in haulage – I would spend my childhood-years constantly drawing cars and trucks. Add to this the fact that I grew up in the world’s hub of motorsport – Just 10 miles from Silverstone – and regularly watched all-sorts of racing, especially classic and vintage meets, I even worked at the circuit for a company that produced and applied the graphics for many teams based around Silverstone, up until I left to start art college. Therefore it seemed only natural that when I found I had time on my hands – due to the recession of 2009/10 – I started to paint motor-racing based art.

My work is a mix of portraits of drivers old and new, along with some classic racing scenes – dating back to the golden-era of Brooklands (in fact, after doing so, I found out from my Grandmother, that her cousin used to race at Brooklands in the 30’s). The first collection of paintings where kept to black and white, firstly because of the era I was focusing on and that these were my first attempt at painting in Oils.

So by focusing on the classic years, I kept to a classic style. But rather than just paint a car, I wanted to convey emotion or motion (depending on subject) across the collection, therefore capturing drivers in post and pre-race poses, and cars in racing-action. Also, I like to think that being black and white, this adds a timeless quality to the work.

Now that my work as a Creative in Advertising is busy again, the amount of time I get to paint has obviously diminished; I do however still take on commissions as well as sell some pieces. I have prints of certain paintings that can be printed to order – prices, sizes etc can be found out via contacting me through my website – www.joelclarkartist.carbonmade.com