Fine art painting makes debut June 30th Burbank

Fine artist Wallace Alfred Wyss will be debuting his fine art portrait of Carroll Hall Shelby at Autobooks-Aerobooks,3524 W. Magnolia Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91505 during his book signing of his new book Ford GT40 and the New Ford GT Sat. June 30th from 11 a.m to 2 p.m.
The work , measuring approx. 12" x 15" , depicts Shelby in his familiar locomotive engineer's overalls behind the wheel of either a Maserati or Ferrari. His sponsor then was John Edgar. Shelby won a national championship in '56 & '57. The work is entitled "Texas Tornado" which was a nickname conferred on him by the press at the time.
The work is presently displayed on the net at http://www.ignitiongallery.com/images/shelby_2.jpg
"Too few writing about Shelby have explored his racing career , where he raced over fifty different marques," says Wyss. "I hope this inspires more interest in his driving career, before he ever built his first car."
The shop can be reached at 818.845.0707

 

Yes, I shouldn't have used the word "painting." though it does involve some painting.
Here's the step by step--
1. black and white picture
2. paint on black and white with watercolors
(which resist mightily in sticking)
3. scan result when dried
4. Devote 40 or so hours to digital input from photoshop
5. take it to professional shop that can transfer digital image
to canvas
6. Retouch with paint
7. lay on glaze
The result looks just like a painting but the clue it's a print in the actual print is the little number hand written on, like 1/250 which indicates the print is the first of 250 printed in that size. I don't know how to post it but if you send your e-mail privately I can send it to you and you can post if.

Regarding the goggles, every color in it was a guess except the car body (wine red) and the farmer's overalls, and I suspect goggles in those days were black rubber rimmed but "artist's license" allows liberal interpretation on colors so we went with more Southwest compatible colors. In another painting, though, of a '63 Cobra hardtop at leMans, we will have to change the color of the car to the right color because you don't mess with history on something as important as the color of an actual car.

 

Bought a magazine at the Society of Auto Historians swap meet from arond '54 and darned if the goggles popular back then aren't black rubber. But too late to change it, I think artist ettiquette is that, once you start numbering them, they all have to be identical...

I saw two period helmets for sale but didn't look at them close, still wonder if it's true they were cork back then or even paper mache? They also had the double window paned goggles for sale, but those are easy to find in the British magazines, modern replicas

Found a picture of Moss and Shelby after winning some race for Aston, and the two are about 2 ft. too far apart to make a painting. Maybe I'll mess with history and put them a foot closer together..Moss still has some hair up top in this photo...

(an aside on Moss; a friend went to Moss' town house in London. I ttook him four hours to video all the gadgets Moss has been donated by various companies, gadgets that make a machine appear out of the wall and disappear back in when you don't neeed it and so forth. I later asked Suzie, his wife, when I saw her in Calif. if the companies got back the publicity from their donations that made it worth it and she assured me they most certainly did. Moss raced in the era before you got much money racing so I guess that's why he's one of road racing's greatest sandbaggers...