The Art Of Passing In Endurance Racing – In part five of the #GetCreativeWithPorsche lockdown series, pop art king Tim Leisel shares the secrets behind his unusual but enviable career.
In a small artist’s studio south of Bath in the west of England, Tim Leisel spends his days lost in a bygone world of vintage racing; the sounds, colors, speed and danger brought to life by the stroke of a brush. In a relatively short time, Tim has become one of the most renowned automotive artists in the world, sought after by a growing group of serious collectors for his unique, dynamic style and intimate, rigorous knowledge of the subject.
The Art Of Passing In Endurance Racing
Leisel’s love of cars started early by anyone’s standards – when his mother was pregnant with him. “My parents watched vintage sports car club races with my older brother and took me to the hills at Wiscombe and Prescot. From the age of about three, my mother would spread the paints on the kitchen floor and I would paint Bugattis, ERAs or D-Type Jags.”
The 2019 Le Mans 24 Hour Race
The family’s passion for all things racing meant that the Goodwood Festival of Speed and Revival soon became a regular event for the Layzells, as did the crowd around the TV to watch a Grand Prix or up a muddy hill to see an RAC rally. But it was the historic race that really captured the young artist’s imagination and what would be his gateway to an unexpected day job.
“I started painting for fun,” he explains, “but at the age of 13 I won a British Racing Club award to find a new car artist. I was exhibiting with all the best artists of the time who were painting from the 1960s and 1970s, so that really kicked it off. After that, it really was like my alternative to the paper circle, and every year since then I’ve exhibited.’
While still at school, Tim gradually developed his artistic style, insisting on painting cars to the chagrin of his art teachers. He began to study the futurists and pop art of Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. He also influenced George Hamm, known for his emotional pre-war Monaco GP posters. Today, his preferred period is the post-war period, from the 1950s to the 1970s – for many the golden age of sports car racing.
“This weather has always fascinated me. It was truly the pinnacle of racing. Obviously, it was a really dangerous period in racing history, but also a really neat period. After graduation I wanted to study car design, but I decided to do painting because I had already sold half the things I had made at school, so it was already a kind of job.’
Endurance Racing With Cars That Belong In A Demolition Derby
The exposure came quickly. A commission to make a Christmas card for classic car dealer Gregor Fisken was soon followed by another Stirling Moss 1960 Ferrari 250 SWB winning the Tourist Trophy. It got in a paper to advertise the Festival of Speed and Layzell’s name and style were there.
Today he makes 15-20 paintings a year. After appearing in the Porsche customer magazine Christophorus in 2017, he is still fulfilling orders from all over the world for classic and modern 911 owners who want their pride and joy to be preserved for generations in the distinctive style of Layzell. He also painted Porsche’s Le Mans-winning 919 Hybrid and the iconic Martini-sponsored 911 RSR that won the 1973 Targa Florio.
The pop art style he’s known for is, by his own admission, “quite homely” and he gets more commissions than you’d expect from gas station husbands, happy that the dynamism and color of his photos are top notch above the mantle. But he also paints in a realistic style at times, with more muted tones and meticulous attention to detail.
“The research takes years because I want it to be as historically accurate as possible. So for example all my Targa Florio backgrounds are real backgrounds. I rode the route a few years ago and took lots of photos. I painted another one of Stirling Moss at Goodwood last year and had to work out the order of the race at a certain point in the 1959 TT, which is actually quite hard to find.”
Le Mans Centenary Official Book
While there may be historical evidence to help set the scene, a degree of creative thinking is still required to create the ideal atmosphere. “Even really well-known races often don’t have a lot of photos,” he says. “Take the Porsche that won the Targa in 1973. They’ll have filmed it in the pits and done a few in the corners, but that’s not necessarily going to be the most spectacular part, so I have to put it together by finding the perfect background and mounting the the cars towards him.
Tim will then spend countless hours making sure he has the correct race order for the given time of day. That any damage sustained by the cars up to this point in the race is obvious, that the correct driver is in the car, that the billboards are correct, that the clock tower shows the correct time. “My wife would say I’m a geek,” he laughs, “but I just like to do it right.”
While this painstaking research gives his work an edge of authenticity, so does a deeper understanding of what a car looks like at the border. After a childhood in the stands and now with several racing seasons of his own vintage TVR Grantura under his belt, Layzell has an invaluable insight into how cars from different eras handle themselves at speed. “In terms of how the car is going to look, you have to think about how it drives around the corner. Many people appreciate that I like to drive and understand chassis dynamics. In my realistic work I tend to put a car on a corner where it lifts the inside front wheel. And obviously this affects the rear of the car where the rear wheel is pushed right into the fender. You can put all this in a picture.
Layzell combines the attributes of passion and perfectionism to brilliant effect, evidenced by the stunning body of work. Here, he shares some advice for anyone hoping to follow in his footsteps – or for those looking to spend a day or two finding their inner artist.
What’s The Etiquette For Backmarkers? Blue And Red Are Fighting For A Podium; Purple Car Is A Backmarker Who Is Overtaking On The Last Lap
“I’ve spent a lot of money over the years on good pencils, but you can’t go far wrong with your average HB. It sounds obvious, but also get yourself a decent eraser and sharpener and keep your pencils nice and sharp at all times.
“When it comes to painting, I’ve always worked with acrylics, on canvas. I work quite quickly, which doesn’t lend itself to bland paint because it takes a long time to dry. It sounds weird to say it, but I’ve been in tight deadlines since I was about 15 and the oils would never dry in time for an exhibition. Pop art also relies on really clean lines – acrylics are much better at achieving this look than oils
“If you’re painting from a photo, which you probably will have to be at this stage, keep looking at the picture. You can’t do this enough. Draw the overall picture very lightly and spend as much time looking at the picture as you do drawing. Many people focus on one small detail and try to get it right, but it doesn’t always work. The best advice I can give is to draw the whole shape but really lightly to make sure it makes sense. If something isn’t right at this stage, it’s much easier to fix it.
“About 80 percent of my work today is commissioned and since appearing in the Porsche customer magazine, Christophorus, various people have asked me to paint their Porsches in certain settings. If it is a classic car with a racing pedigree, I will look closely at the history and discuss with the customer the ideal race to focus on. Then I’ll do some preliminary sketches using different angles to see what works best for them and the car.
The Racing Line: Posters From The Golden Era Of Motorsport
“To get things right, I do a lot of research. If you have chosen a certain moment in a certain race, you need to make sure that everything is as accurate as possible: from the light at that time of day to the advertising boards of that period. Somewhere like Monaco is a nightmare after 1958 when all the tall buildings started arriving. And cars can look completely different from qualifying one day to the race the next. Things may have been changed or added overnight, like more louvers to improve cooling or different wheels. I will even try to find out if the car had any accident damage during the race. It might as well have been covered in duct tape by now!
“It’s rarely easy to find photos of a particular race, and even if you do, they’re often not in the perfect place for your finished piece. So although I would encourage working with archival material