The Magic Motorsport Art of Michael Mate

The magic motorsport art of Michael Mate captures the golden age of motorsport with a palpable sense of place, space, light and time.

What makes Michael’s work really stand out to me is context. We’ve seen some truly awesome automotive art recently, but much of it has taken an abstract approach, choosing to focus on feel, design, colour and energy. Michael’s work still captures the energy, colour and bombast of classic motorsport, but with a much more grounded sense of place.

“While I have done many different types of Automotive Art over the years, I have always preferred a painting to depict a specific time and place. That means the car and its livery, the background of the circuit and the time of day or night and even the weather.The research that I do is part of the process and something which I enjoy.”

He also has a wonderful way of capturing light, and in particular the Golden Hour; that fleeting period at the beginning and end of each day, where the sun sits low in the sky and produces a wonderfully diffused golden light.

“Even though it’s more time consuming, I like the subtle blending of colors that is possible with oil paints.”

Featuring icons of classic motorsport, his works are primarily oil paint on canvas, and are available as litho prints, limited giclee prints and extremely limited originals.

Check out his site here for much more, and to buy prints or originals.

Thanks to Michael Mate for the images.