Nationality British Role Artist | Name Ian Cook Website PopbangColour Nominations Shorty Award for Art | |
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Artwork BugARTi, Fluorescent Chevy Volt, F1 Lotus E20 005 | ||
Ian Cook is a contemporary British artist who creates his artworks solely by painting with radio-controlled cars, car tyres and toy car wheels. He operates under the corporate vehicle 'PopbangColour'.
Contents
Cook became a car enthusiast at an early age and combined his passions of cars, toys and art to create complex and dynamic artworks.
Ian cook and lewis hamilton make driving a work of art day 2
Early life
Cook studied at Langley Secondary School, Solihull from 1994–1999. He then went to Sutton Coldfield College, where he would later teach, to study a BTEC National Diploma, for Illustration. Finally, he attended Winchester School of Art for Fine art where he received a First BA Honours degree for painting. He studied at the Latvian art academy in Riga, Latvia, and it was there that he started employing vehicles in his works. In particular, while in Latvia he produced photography and collected merchandise in regards to Range Rover.
For a short period he became a lecturer in fine art and visual studies at Sutton Coldfield College's design centre.
Style
To create his unique artworks, Cook spoons acrylic paint and ink onto large 2.5 x 1.5 metre Fabriano Paper and drives the radio-controlled cars over the canvas in short bursts to create the 'brush strokes'. He also uses full-size car tyres for large blocks of colour and small toy car wheels for different prints and textures.
He first began using this artwork style when one Christmas he received a radio-controlled Lightning McQueen and was told "not to take it down the studio and not to get paint on it". With his 'lightbulb' moment Ian took a large canvas, placed it on the floor, and applied some paint to a toy car. Cook has also used a large truck to create the larger solid lines.
Cook creates his artworks his studio, at the Heritage Motor Centre, Gaydon, Warwickshire, where he is artist in resident. Cook has been seen creating in public places across the United Kingdom for shows or promotions. including Goodwood Festival of Speed, Autosport International, Salon Privé and Britcar
Famous pieces
Cook's artwork has been featured on Blue Peter, Top Gear, The One Show with Chris Evans and Jessie J and painted with Lewis Hamilton on Sky Sports F1. He has a studio at the Heritage Motor Centre, Warwickshire.
In October 2008, Cook made a portrait of Formula 1 racing driver Lewis Hamilton the size of "two London double-decker buses", which was unveiled by Tower Bridge, London.
In March 2011, Cook featured on the ITV breakfast show Daybreak, where he created a portrait of Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley as well as the Daybreak logo.