The 2014 Goodwood Revival

Well, this is now the 4th year in a row that my Belgian artist friend Nicolas Cancelier and I get together to go to the Goodwood Revival, but this year was certainly different for us.

We decided not to book a vendor stand, but instead we were invited to join some friends who had their race teams there. This is the first time that I’ve actually managed to take in the event, and it is frankly vast and astounding! The vintage cars, motorcycles, aircraft, and spectators!!!!





Matt and Anne arriving!! © Paul Chenard 2014

My friend Anna, our friends from Vancouver Matt and Anne, and our friend Alan from Shropshire joined us at the townhouse we rent each year on the English coast.

Our gang ... Nico, Matt, Anne, Anna, Alan and moi! 
Photo © Nicolas Cancelier 2014

Matt is actually an official Goodwood Revival photographer, so he was working all weekend at the event.

On Friday, September 12th, Nico and I wandered around getting our bearings and taking photos.























Above photos © Paul Chenard 2014

 For the following days, we wandered around sketching what we found interesting, and tracking down our friends here and there.



Photo © Alan O'Neill 2014


 
Photo © Nicolas Cancelier 2014

Photo © Ian T. Grainger 2014

Live sketching really attracts the curious, and it was lots of fun to interact with the spectators and answer their questions. It actually led to a few commissions, which are always great.

On Sunday, my dear friend Vicki organized a tour of the track for us in Nick's 1958 Xk150!!!!
In the evening, we would all gather in a great local restaurant like the Pizza Pasta Pub for great hospitality, food and service, or the Bracklesham Diner for fabulous Chinese cuisine!


Photo © Nicolas Cancelier 2014

We are all looking forward to next year!!!

Beer Label Posters for Goodwood Revival

In the past 3 years, Belgian racing history artist Nicolas Cancelier and I have been going to the Goodwood Revival, sharing vendor space to present and sell our art.

As a little custom promotion, we have a very limited number of bottles of premium “La Moneuse” Belgian beer on hand to give out to VIPs and premium clients.



Each year, I create 6 new beer labels, 3 with my art and 3 with Nico’s art, to grace the bottles.



Since it’s now become a tradition with us, we are offering posters of each year’s selection of labels. These are printed in full colour A3 format on lovely white gloss stock.



We are printing limited quantities, so please contact us if you are interested in ordering them. They retail for $15 USD/£10 GBP/€10 EUR plus shipping/fees

Paul Chenard – paul.chenard@hotmail.com

Nicolas Cancelier – n.cancelier@scarlet.be

You can also come find us at at the Goodwood Revival Market stand #76.
Cheers!

Spa 6 Hours Classic 2012

After our long weekend at the fabulous Goodwood Revival as vendors, Nicolas Cancelier and I went to the Spa 6 Hour Classic race as spectators.

I absolutely love going to that event on such a historic track. The countryside is beautiful, and the track is very challenging. The sights and sounds are amazing!

Sports Car Digest has done a feature on the races that weekend; you can read them here:
http://www.sportscardigest.com/spa-six-hours-2012-report-and-photos/

Last year at the same event, my camera died, and I've yet to replace it. I've thought of my roll as an artist, and decided to do at least one sketch at each event, instead of photography.
Lola T70
Pen&ink, paint markers and markers on gray archival stock © Paul Chenard 2012

This time, I set up behind a friend Jason's beautiful Lola T70, and sketched the exposed V-8 and it's sinewy headers and exhaust pipes, and trumpeting brake-cooling ducts.

Photos can never really compare to live art ...

The Goodwood Revival 2012

Another year older and deeper in debt, as the song goes ...

Going to the Revival as a vendor is not for the financially faint-hearted, especially if you are from outside Europe.

Wonderful British artist and friend Anna-Louise Felstead graced us with her presence.

That said, it’s a 3-day 13-hour-per-day adrenaline rush of sights, sounds, contacts made, art sold, friendships renewed, experiences shared … a very hard combination to resist.


We were visited by Mrs Carroll Shelby, a lovely warm-hearted person ... a huge honour for us.

My friend Belgian automotive artist Nicolas Cancelier and took another “leap of faith” and returned as vendors again.

Nicolas and I working on our art in the open
Photo © Matt Jacques

There were numerous changes in the event organization this year which directly hurt our sales. On the positive side, new contacts and relationships nurtured have a direct result of the hatching of large interesting projects with interesting people.

While at the Revival, I met Mrs. Carroll Shelby, Mr. and Mrs. Henri Pescarolo, Rowan Atkinson, Tony Brooks, Jean Alesi, Sir Stirling and Lady Susie Moss and Murray Walker.

We also met some wonderful artists and business owners.

The next few months will be very telling, but for the optimist in me, things are looking bright indeed.

Photographer Allan de la Plante

Over the past few years, I’ve followed a path of highlighting automotive motor sports history through my art. And all along the way, I’ve been blessed with meeting wonderful people … Nicolas and Dirk in Belgium, Jennifer and Stephen in USA, Lyndsay and Ralph in the UK, John in Scotland, Peter and Rob in Canada …
Allan (left) talking to his friend Bobby Rahal 
Photo courtesy and © John R. Walker 2012

There are many many more, all of whom I can call my friends. Another one of those special people is sports and motor sports photographer Allan de la Plante from British Columbia, Canada.
"Four into Four" © Allan de la Plante 1976

We connected a few years back, through a friend of a Facebook friend, and through his FB albums I became aware of his fabulous photography, and in particular, the wonderful photos of his dear friend Gilles Villeneuve.

On Monday evening, Allan was at the Halifax airport, a stop-over on his way to Newfoundland. He notified me of this, so my friend Alan Coles and I scooted out to meet him.

I have to say that it was to have Allan there in person … what a heck of a guy! It was like meeting an old friend for the first time!

We had all but 10 minutes to chat, but Allan graciously signed my Villeneuve book and my Canada Post Villeneuve stamps, talked with pride about his old son’s forays into motor sports photography and golfing, and then told us 3 quick motor sports stories, none of which I can publish!

Now, I have a goal of meeting up with Allan again, and spending more time listening to one a greats of motor sports photography. Merci, Allan!

The Goodwood Revival 2011: An Artist-vendor’s View

This year, my good friend Belgian artist Nicolas Cancelier and I decided to take the plunge and show our art together at the 2011 Goodwood Revival.

Me and my good friend Belgian artist Nicolas Cancelier
© Dirk de Jager 2011

I have to say that it was an experience I won’t soon forget.

Here, we are joined by fellow artist Anna-Louise Felstead.

Dirk (centre), a friend, and I help chop down a small forest of Chimay.
 
The traffic in our booth’s alleyway was less than we anticipated, and I think it hurt all our neighbour vendors too.

Even with this fact, we had a good enthusiastic public, some of them even seeming shocked at the idea that two artist friends could show their art together, and that there could be such a large variety of artwork.

We also had drop-ins by Facebook friends, like David Anthony Betts, photographer/journalist Dirk de Jager and videographer/photographer Ralph Colmar, along with fellow artists Anna-Louise Felstead, Debra Wenlock, and Richard Wheatland. Due to a little creative marketing on our part, we also had a few celebrities drop by. I can safely say that the days weren’t boring.


Tiff Needell, Arturo Merzario and Paul Lovett all benefitted from our little limited edition gifts.
  
As exhibiting artists, we didn’t have much time to really take in any of the event and activities, but it was exciting non-the-less.

At the end of the day, we became regulars at the Bell Inn in Chichester. It’s a wonderfully friendly laid-back place with great food — the perfect escape after our 13-hour days!

Artist Nicolas Cancelier

In the past few years, I’ve been lucky enough to meet all kinds of people with the same passion for art and motor sports history as I have.

One of these is Belgian artist Nicolas Cancelier. 


His artwork is absolutely stunning, and it ranges from simple pencils sketches to mixed media, acrylic, watercolour, and oils.

The energy and life he brings to his subjects is masterful, whatever medium he chooses.

In the past year, we’ve become very good friends, and we’ve decided to share vendor space at the very prestigious Goodwood Revival in September. I hope that if you are there, that you’ll drop in and see us.

You can see Nicolas’ work on his website and his blog. Very much worth a look!