As a part time artist, my interest in Caterham's started with my brother-in-law who owned one and took me to local Caterham meetings. Drawing them is particularly enjoyable because they look great from any angle and tend to be interesting colours with generally no two looking the same.
I worked for many years in a bank and although it paid the bills it never really fulfilled me or gave me a sense of achievement at the end of each day. I had always drawn as a child, but not carried this over into adulthood. In my mid-twenties this changed when I was given a set of oil paints and I started copying paintings by painters like Monet, Van Gogh and Manet. I found that even if I only painted for 15 minutes in the evening after work I was getting a sense of achievement that my job in the bank wasn't giving me. The copying of the masters gave me the confidence to try creating my own original works of art and I started to paint still-life's and landscapes and this in turn lead me to experimenting with painting intricate and colourful pattern drawings.
I'd always had an interest in classic cars. My first car was a classic 1973 mini clubman which was 15 years old when I bought it, so was my first introduction to classic car ownership, and I now have a classic 1987 mini which has been lightly modified, which I used as my wedding car last year and is my weekend car and a modern BMW Mini Clubman which is my daily drive. When I was asked by a friend if I would draw a drawing of their father's car as a birthday present and I found that I really enjoyed this as a subject I decided to mainly concentrate on drawing and painting car's.
Through posting examples of my car drawings on Facebook and Instagram I gained more commission work and I have since displayed my artwork at Beaulieu Motor Museum, Brooklands Museum and at a number of classic car dealerships and I have been featured in a number of classic car magazines. I have sold my work to clients in the USA, Australia, Taiwan, France and Germany to name a few.
I am now lucky enough to work part-time as an artist, combining this with a part-time role as a Police customer services advisor.
I have been commissioned to draw Supercars such as Zonda's, Ferrari's, Lamborghini's and Porsche's, to Classic cars such as Lotus, Beetles, Morgan's, mini's and Jaguar's, to Modern cars such as Nissan 370z's, Jaguar F Type's, Fiesta ST's and Golf GTI's, as well as client’s motorbikes and even their cats and dogs!
Painting are a given as a gift or a remembrance of a favourite car now sold, and for readers of the International 7 network newsletter a 10% donation towards Sir Jackie Stewarts charity Race against Dementia will be made.
I create paintings from photographs. My drawings are hand-drawn using pen and watercolour pencils on quality watercolour paper and are available in either A4 size (approx 30 x 21cm / 11.7" x 8 .27") which start from £55.00 or A3 size (approx 42 x 30cm / 16.5" x 11.7") which start from £110.00. I often will add a unique background to the drawing, for example on the track at Silverstone or parked in the pits at Goodwood or with your favourite scenic view as a backdrop ( please send a photo!). Customers get a regular update of the drawing as it progresses. A drawing will generally take between 2-4 weeks, dependent on the size of the drawing and whether a background is included.
see examples here
contact: neilsbeetle@hotmail.com
