Remote control cars make ‘wheely’ great paintings

27th January 2012

Artist and self-confessed petrolhead Ian Cook owns more than 200 cars – and he likes nothing better than running his Ferrari 458 Italia through a pool of paint!

And for three days next week he will be running a whole fleet of his vehicles through paint at the Darwin Shopping Centre in Shrewsbury.

Ian, whose paintings have been featured on television’s Top Gear, will be putting his radio-controlled model cars through their paces from Monday, January 27, through to Wednesday, January 29.

The 28 year old has managed to turn his boyhood hobbies of painting and playing with radio controlled cars into an internationally acclaimed art form.

He creates incredible works of art using model radio controlled cars as his paintbrushes.

The first to put him on the art world map was a portrait of F1 champion Lewis Hamilton for Reebok. It was the size of a three storey building and hung next to Tower Bridge in the run up to the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix.
He said: “I’ve always been a petrolhead and loved art, so it’s great to mix my two biggest passions.”

“This is my first visit to Wales. I will set up about 8am and start painting about 10am and finish a complete work by 5 or 6pm.”

Kevin Lockwood, the Manager of the Darwin, Pride Hill and Riverside Shopping Centres in the town, just can’t wait to see Ian at work.
He said: “His paintings are absolutely sensational and I’m astonished that he can create such fantastic work with remote-control cars.

“It should be a fantastic attraction whether you’re interested in art or you love cars – it brings a whole new meaning to the expression ‘painted to the road’.”

Ian, a former art lecturer who lives near Birmingham, is in huge demand world-wide and recently completed a project for Jaguar Land Rover, using just Jaguar Land Rover cars.

Another commission took him to Barcelona where he completed an art work for a group of companies who provide paint to the car repair industry and he has also done on with Arsenal players for Citroen at The Emirates Stadium.

He explained: “It’s the familiar pop art commercial culture thing, using certain brands to create specific images. Would Campbell’s soups be as famous without Warhol?”
Ian has a degree in fine art painting, but has always been a car enthusiast and even did work experience shadowing car engineers and designers.

He hit on the idea of painting with radio controlled cars when he was given an RV car by a now former girlfriend for Christmas in 2006.
“She told me ‘don’t take it down your studio, and don’t get paint on it’ and the idea was born.

“From this I did colour wheels and abstract pieces, and then moved on to images, this included logos, portraits and cars. But cars were the most effective,” he said.

To create his paintings, Ian applies the paint to the paper and then runs the cars through the paint.  All the cars are different sizes with different tracks and widths.

It may seem an expensive way to create a work of art but Ian says it can actually work out cheaper.

“The RV cars I use range from £10 to £25 maximum. If I wanted a decent sable paint brush it could cost £80-90,” he said. When he has finished with the cars, he can even sell them on.

He uses a “fleet” of non-branded cars for most of his artwork, unless it is a specific commission which requires him to use a particular make of car to match the painting – such as the Jaguar Land Rover commission. Some of his work has appeared on TV’s Top Gear.

He worked with Ferrari and used five new ‘paintbrushes’ supplied to him, including one of the car he was painting , the Ferrari 458 Italia, which Ian describes as a great looking car and a great paintbrush.

His studio is the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon where he is currently artist in residence.

Ian’s website is www.popbangcolour.com and he can also be followed on Twitter ‘@Popbangcolour’ and through YouTube and Facebook Group “Pop bang Colour – artwork by Ian Cook”.