Fernando Costa Creates The Official Art Car for Le Mans 24 Hours (and a look at his art).

The OAK Racing Official Art Car for the 90th anniversary of the Le Mans 24 Hours has been unveiled. The colorful and radical design was created by French artist and sculptor Fernando Costa who created the car much like most of his own sculptural artwork. He soldered pieces of metal road and street signs atop the body of the Morgan-Nissan race car.


above: Artist Fernando Costa in his studio (photo by jm angles)

The Art Car will be seen on the team's No. 45 Morgan-Nissan, driven by Jean-Marc Merlin, Philippe Mondolot and team principal Jacques Nicolet.

Creating the car:








While there will be no fewer than three art cars in the race, including unique liveries from Aston Martin Racing and JMW Motorsport, OAK's design has been designated as the official art car by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest.



“In my meeting with Jacques Nicolet and the bringing to fruition of this project, the most important thing for me was the confidence entrusted in me and the challenge it represented," Costa said. "As I like challenges I accepted straight away! But what artist would pass up the creation of an Art Car for the Le Mans 24 Hours?

"And when, like me, one is a lover of this legendary event, this very popular motor sport party, you throw yourself into the adventure hoping to put a smile on people’s faces and give them a little happiness. I’m very honored that the Automobile Club de l’Ouest has made this Art Car the emblem of the 90th anniversary of the Le Mans 24 Hours.”

Here's a look at several pieces of artwork by Fernando Costa:











See more work by Fernando Costa here.

Le Mans 24 Hours site

Supercars Painted With LED Lights Continue To Gain Speed.

Marc Cameron and photographer Mark Brown teamed up to create a series of "Light Painted" sports cars shot at well known locales in London. Initially launched in November 2009, the ongoing project continues as they add more and newer cars to their series, including a series of F1 (Formula One) race cars.

Below are several images from the series of Light Graffiti Cars, including many of the newest ones.

Ariel Atom:

Aston Martin Cygnet:

Bugatti Veyron Supersport:

Ford GT40:

Holden Efigy:

Koenigsegg-CCX:


Lamborghini Gallardo:

Lexus LFA:

Mastretta MXT:

McLaren MP4 12c:

Mercedes SL500 Brabus:

Mercedes SLR McLaren:

Mercedes SLS AMG:

Pagani Huayra:

Porsche 918 Spyder:

TVR Tuscan:

VW Beetle:

VW Camper/Bus:


Formula 1 Race Cars:








“Light painting” or “light graffiti” is a complicated process that involves using LED lights to draw an outline that a camera with a slow shutter speed then captures. Using extended exposures Mark Brown is able to step in front of the lens and paint with light using the camera as a canvas. He them uses photographed components as backgrounds for the images. Nothing is digitally generated, only composited.

The Official Light Graffiti site
These images and more are available as prints here

Hole Punch Dots Make Whole Face Portraits by Artist Nikki Douthwaite.

Artist and huge F1 fan Nikki Douthwaite makes mosaic portraits out of photographs, paper scraps, articles and ephemera, but her Hole Punch Dot portraits really caught my eye. Most of us just toss out those little round pieces of paper punched out from larger pieces without giving them a second thought. What we think of us trash, Nikki has turned into an art medium.


above: Marilyn Monroe's portrait made with approx 99,000 punch hole dots


above: James Lebron takes a good close look at Nikki's portrait of John Lennon

Taking colored hole punch dots to create large overscale black and white portraits (yes, colored dots create the shading and tones in the black and white portraits) Nikki painstakingly arranges them on wood, varnishes them and frames them.



She has created many Hole Punch Dot portraits of Formula 1 race car drivers and even one of Bruce McLaren himself- all shown below. She has also created several commissions and boasts a world's record. Here's a look at her work.

MUHAMMED ALI
Hole Punch Dots (Approx 115,000) on wood, Size - 165cm by 150cm:


JIMI HENDRIX
Hole Punch Dots (Approx 150,000) on wood, Size - 150cm by 200cm:



MARTIN and ALEX BRUNDLE, Hole Punch Dots (Approx 140,000) on wood:


ALAIN PROST
Hole Punch Dots (Approx 100,000) on wood, Size - 160cm by 122cm:



JENSON BUTTON
Hole Punch Dots (Approx 100,000) on wood, Size - 160cm by 122cm:


JAMES HUNT
Hole Punch Dots (Approx 100,000) on wood, Size - 160cm by 122cm:


BRUCE MCLAREN
Hole Punch Dots (Approx 150,000) on wood, Size - 200cm by 150cm:



JOHN LENNON
Hole Punch Dots (Approx 99,000) on wood, Size - 158cm by 122cm:



MARILYN MONROE
Hole Puch Dots (Approx 99,000) on wood, Size - 158cm by 122cm:



AYRTON SENNA
Hole Punch Dots (Approx 100,000) on wood, Size - 160cm by 122cm:



CHERYL COLE
Hole Punch Dots (Approx 59.000) on wood, Size - 122cm by 105cm:



ARTIST STATEMENT:
My work for the last three years has been based around two mediums; dot art (also known as confetti art) and collage.

My dot art is made by using coloured dots produced by a hole punch, and painstakingly stuck on, one by one, with a pair of tweezers. This idea came from the works of Georges-Pierre Seurat, studying his pointillist paintings from the late 19th century. My collages are made from magazine articles relevant to the subject of the picture.



My work, whether dots or collage, have similarities in progress. Based around art-critic and teacher Charles Blanc and chemist Michel Eugene Chevreul's theories of optical mixing, colour placement and colour relationships. Colour excites me, and use of it is critical to the success of one of my works.

Whatever the medium, my goal is to create two experiences for the viewer. The first is a close up experience of either thousands of tiny, mixed up coloured dots, or readable magazine articles, which in detail intrigue in themselves, but may seem chaotic and to have no order to the viewer at this distance. The second experience is the far away view, the viewers' eyes and brain mix the dots/articles/colours together, revealing the relationships of the details and the image as a whole.

My choice of portraits comes from an interest in faces, in the biological form; bone and muscle construction, sociological, expression and individuality. Most of my work is based around my love of motor sport, predominantly Formula One, for which I have a huge passion.


above: Nikki Douthwaite shows off her world record holder certificate for creating the world's largest confetti mosaic consisting of 587,000 hole punched dots.

I have been working with these mediums now for about three years. I am obsessed with attention to detail, and I am meticulous about every dot, every piece being in the right place. I work for ten to fourteen hours at a time, through the night to optimise concentration.


For Sales Enquires please contact her Agent, Henna at henna.riaz@gmail.com


Nikki Douthwaite