Dijon 1979 - A race not easily forgotten ...

The Renault Team was favored to make a clean sweep of the 1979 French Grand Prix. A French car on French soil driven by a Frenchman and fueled by French "carburant" had the making of P.R. gold.

But they didn't count on the tenacity of the Canadian driving for Ferrari ...
Pen & ink and Prismacolor pencils on gray archival stock
© Paul Chenard 2008
Original art available, as are limited editions.

Photographer, author, keynote speaker Allan De La Plante had the chance to witness that famous race; in his words:

Hi Paul,
I was there In Dijon that crazy day and it was something else. When I returned to the pits Gilles' T4 was sitting there all alone with the front tires completely spent, but the thing that got to me was the car was growning and creaking as it cooled down. It almost seemed to talk! I am sure the car was as satisfied as everyone, well almost everyone, that saw that almighty duel.
Nice work!

You can see Allan's fabulous photography at http://www.allandelaplante.webs.com/

L'art et l'automobile Catalog Auction

I'm very honoured to have two of my original artpieces in the current L'art et l'automobile auction.

Mister Jacques Vaucher's auctions are world renowned and respected for the quality and scope of the lots.








Fangio - Lancia D24 - La Carrera Panamericana 1953

Prismacolor pencils of red archival paper, 13" x 19.75"
© Paul Chenard 2007

My portrait of Juan Manuel Fangio and his win of the 1953 La Cerrara Panamericana in a Lancia D24 and my representation of Sir Stirling Moss' win of the 1959 Nurburgring 1000 km in an Aston Martin DBR1 are the two pieces represented.



Sir Stirling Moss - Aston Martin DBR1 -
Nurburgring 1000 km 1959

Prismaclor pencils on gray archival stock, 18" x 7"
© Paul Chenard 2008

Sir Jack Brabham - 50th Anniversary

Recently, I have been corresponding with Sir Jack Brabham, who is celebrating the 50th anniversary of his first of three F1 Driver's Championship wins. He suffers from kidney failure and is on dialysis; he lends his image and name to Australian Kidney Foundation, now Kidney Health Australia (KHA), for their fund-raising.

In his honour, I did a portrait featuring his wins. Though I will retain the image copyright world-wide, I decided to lend it, with unrestricted usage, to KHA for all and any of their fund-raising within Australia.





Pen & ink, and Prismacolor pencils on white archival stock
© Paul Chenard 2009

Available as a limited edition of 50 Giclee prints.

I emailed Sir Brabham for his approval of this idea, and at the same time, requested a quote related to the image that I could add directly to the piece.

A week and a half ago, he has emailed back his approval, copying KHA at the same time; he also gave me the requested quote!

KHA even emailed me their thanks, and the pleasure at being able to use the artwork. This is huge honour for me, with Sir Brabham's endorsement of my piece as a representative image for fund-raising.

Mike Hawthorn 1929-1959

I now have my Mike Hawthorn sketch available as a limited edition of 50 Giclee prints.


Pen & ink with watercolour and Prismacolor pencils on white archival Strathmore stock
© Paul Chenard 2009

It is currently featured in the Automobilia section of Classic & Sports Car magazine. This has lead to the first order of the print from a gentleman in Boston; he ordered it for his very best friend's birthday in England, who is a Hawthorn fan.

Once I packaged it up for shipping, I decided to decorate the back of the packaging with an original marker rendering of Hawthorn racing a Ferrari in the 1958 Grand Prix de Monaco.


Markers on corrugated cardboard © Paul Chenard 2009

Birthdays should always have happy surprises!