His father built Jaguars and his grandfather raced thoroughbreds, so it’s only natural that Barry Rowe would inherit a fascination.
What’s surprising, perhaps, is that this genetic imperative would manifest itself on canvas, rather than a racecourse.
Though Rowe has been around classic automobiles and racetracks his entire life, the Coventry native didn’t begin painting in earnest until seven years ago, when he was in his mid-50s and had established himself in advertising. In this short time, he has become one of the leading artistic interpreters of motor sports.
In the infield of the Laguna Seca raceway, Rowe is signing limited-edition posters for customers of Steve Austin’s Automobilia, which has established a temporary beachhead at the annual Historic Automobile Races. As the soft-spoken Brit chats with his admirers, however, the throaty roar of vintage racecars threatens to make all attempts at normal conversation futile.
Peering out from under the brim of his well-worn Panama hat, he gratefully accepts an offer to escape to the shade of a nearby picnic area for an interview. Though most of those at Laguna Seca this weekend have seen his work numerous times–chiefly on posters for the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and Tour and Road & Track magazine–Rowe can stroll the grounds, pens in hand, in near anonymity.
Heck, Van Gogh and Picasso probably could walk through the pits here arm-in-arm, and no one would blink, unless they were in the company of Phil Hill or Carroll Shelby.
“My grandfather was a steeplechase jockey in England, and he used to show me pictures from the racetracks . . . all the color and pageantry,” recalled Rowe, pointing to his period-evoking “Ettore Bugatti,” which shows the automaker astride his horse and surrounded by race cars, in the latest edition of Automobile Quarterly, a hard-bound publication for collectors. “My father used to work for Jaguar, during the C-Type and D-Type era, and I’d sneak into the factory on my bike. If I didn’t get caught, I’d spend the afternoon sketching the cars being worked on in the racing division.”
The first automobile he captured on paper was a XK-120. More than 50 years later, he’s still drawing Jaguars, only he’s now paid thousands of dollars for each.
Rowe’s innate artistic skills helped win him a scholarship to Coventry’s prestigious College of Art. Barely into his teens, he’d spend a half-day concentrating on academic studies and the other half in the studio.
“When I was 15 or 16, though, a friend convinced me that I’d be better off to join an advertising agency, and train from there,” Rowe recalled, sipping a soft drink. “I had my pick of three offers, and, by the time I turned 18, I had become an art director and was handling my own accounts. At 26, I decided to go freelance, which I did until 1994.”
Several of the companies he represented were involved in the manufacture of automobile parts or had interests in the travel industry. His clients have included Coventry Climax, India Tires, Louis Vuitton of Paris, the Royal Mail, Royal Doulton and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.
Racing world grabs Rowe
It was when Rowe was in his early 20s, however, that he could engulf himself in the world of racing.
After being introduced to the editor of Sporting Motorist magazine by a photographer friend, he was commissioned to create cover art and other illustrations. Typically, the pay wasn’t much to brag about, but the magazine paid his way to the great road courses of Europe.
He continued doing freelance commercial art–“car-sales brochures, posters of Ford trucks, that sort of thing”–and lecturing on illustration at the Falmouth College of Art, until 1994. Encouraged by his wife, Sandra, Rowe entered an international competition sponsored by Sotheby’s and the Transport Trust based on the theme of “Record Breakers.”
“My first choice was a painting of English land-speed record holder Malcolm Campbell and his Bluebird,” said Rowe. “Sandra insisted that I also submit a portrait of Juan Manuel Fangio, who was a five-time racing champion. I just sort of threw it into the package as an afterthought.
“To my surprise, the Fangio painting won the competition and a prize of 10,000 pounds [then, about $17,000]. Since then, I’ve been a painter of pictures in frames, and my work has been exhibited in museums, galleries and in the homes of individual collectors.”
Rowe’s paintings aren’t difficult to pick out in an exhibition hall. He tries to place classic automobiles in period settings and inform the backgrounds with Art Deco and Impressionist references.
“Very often, a car I’m commissioned to paint will have some historic interest,” he adds. “So, I’ll try to create a period scene, and, if the owner wants to be in the painting with his car, I’ll put him in vintage clothing, as well.”
Exploiting subtleties in light and shading also is important in any Rowe painting. “A foggy day is very nice and moody, but it doesn’t really excite me,” he stresses. “I love contrast and like to lose bits of detail in the shade, then find it again in the light. You need darkness to emphasize the brightness . . . the lightness.
“I’m not interested in flat, midday light, so I like to work in the morning and evening, with the long shadows. I enjoy the hot colors around here, though; England is much more green.”
Once he established himself as an artist of promise, the decision to move from illustration to painting was surprisingly easy.
“I could get $1,500 to $2,000 for a poster, which was reasonable for a commercial job, but $20,000 for a painting,” Rowe allows. “I did some sales posters for Louis Vuitton a while back, and someone came up to me today with one he wanted autographed. They had just thrown them out, and he found them.
“Now, I suppose, they’re collectible.”
In 1996, Rowe was invited to Pebble Beach as a guest and was voted into the Automotive Fine Arts Society. A year later, he put several paintings on display in the exhibition tent, and he was asked to do the poster and program cover for the next year’s concours.
That honor has since been repeated, and, for the last two years, Rowe’s done the poster for the tour of classic cars, as well. Last month, his paintings won two top awards at the 16th annual AFAS Premiere Exhibition at the Concours d’Elegance.
He finds the Monterey Peninsula to be similar in appearance to his home in Otterton, Devon, where he maintains his studio. He does, however, find amusing signs along the 17-Mile Drive, a scenic route around the coast and golf courses at Pebble Beach that is open to the public for $7, warning motorists that “shooting and hunting aren’t allowed.” Being from Britain, it is odd to him that golfer and tourists may be carrying weapons.
Rowe says he works mostly in acrylics, on canvas, because they’re “very convenient, and dry quickly.”
When he isn’t working at home on commissions, Rowe can be found at automobile shows and ralleys at places such as Palm Beach, Amelia Island, Beverly Hills and Goodwood. He has owned many interesting cars, with his favorites a 1931 supercharged Lagonda, a 1929 Riley Nine Tourer and a late-model Morgan.
Other artists inspired by autos
Rowe and other members of the AFAS receive princely treatment at Pebble Beach. The works of many lesser-known artists are on display at other events during the weekend.
At the Concorso Italiano, for example, painters and sculptors compete for the attention of patrons with some of the world’s finest automobile designers.
One popular exhibit belonged to J. Paul Nessa, of Stillwater, Minn., whose bronze sculptures of classic cars combine historic accuracy with a subtle sense of humor.
“Everything’s done in limited editions, and I’ll only take a commission if it’s a piece I can sell other copies of,” Nessa says. “I have to be able to sell more than one copy of a given piece, otherwise it doesn’t work out economically. There’s usually 12 to 24 pieces in a given edition.
“They’re all originals in a particular edition, because the actual model is made of clay, and I reuse that clay.”
He says his typical customer is 45 to 55 years old, male and accomplished in business, “definitely not corporate, although I’ve sold corporate . . . someone who can make a decision on his own.”
The pieces average about $12,000, and he can do about two a year.
Down the row, Michael Allen Langshaw, of Carmel, is showing a collection of contemporary paintings that represent commissions he’s worked on for racing enthusiasts. He finds customers mostly through word-of-mouth or at car shows such as the Concorso Italiano.
“If the owners live nearby, I’ll go to their garage and take pictures of the car,” says Langshaw, who began drawing cars when he was 9 in the shadow of his father, a sculptor. “That gives us a lot of images to choose from. If the owner wants a specialized background, I’ll try to take the photographs on location, or I can offer the owner a choice of background settings from books.”
The wonderful thing about painting, he adds, “I can embellish a car’s looks even more than a photographer can in the darkroom. I’ll make it look beautiful.
“I look for people who are fanatical about their cars and want to own a one-of-a-kind work of art.”
Depending on the size of canvas, Langshaw’s paintings range from about $2,500 to $4,200.
“Our customers are real enthusiasts and quite specific in their favorite makes, models and years, especially the Ferrari owners,” said Douglas Axt, of Axt Design, in Campbell, Calif. “People who are in higher-end brackets tend to stay within their sector of interest, and that’s it. They do, however, love to recall the vintage car and historic courses, as well, and it’s not difficult to accommodate them on that.
“In all the work I’ve done for NASCAR, I don’t see the same interest in original art that we get from Porsche and Ferrari owners, although there is some. Those fans are more interested in posters of hot rods, older stock cars and race tracks, like the old Baylands Raceway here.”
