"The thing is with inspiration, is that you never get any warning before it hits you…”
A career defining ten year commissioned project for McLaren, that I never even dreamt of let alone saw coming, it would have been unrealistic to target. McLarens eight world driver champions celebrating next to their cars on the iconic MTC Boulevard, with founder Bruce watching over them, like a proud father with his high achieving children…. is my concept. And I still struggle to compute the enormity of this today, seven years into the project. That something so permanent, that I have created for arguably the worlds greatest F1 museum, and revered by so many so close to the actual subjects of the sculpture, is ridiculous. McLaren’s Monuments is a project driven by celebration, history, remembrance, story telling, by fans and for fans. I worked for a year of my own volition to create Senna ‘Eau Rouge’, simply because Ayrton was the reason I first grew to love F1 back in the mid to late 80s, as a British teen I was inherently a fan of McLaren and of Senna. Eau Rouge was unveiled in early 2019, immediately went viral, and although McLaren were in the loop all through it’s creation, I never expected them to buy the sculpture to show alongside Ayrton’s car on their famous boulevard. It may as well be the artwork that I introduce myself by ‘Ahhhh that was you!?’ I hear almost weekly. A few months later, the indomitable Niki Lauda passed away, who besides his two world titles for Ferrari and later connection with Mercedes, was McLaren’s world drivers champion in 1984, and I was immediately called in to their Monaco motorhome to discuss creating a bronze statue for him also. That 10 minute meeting with Zak Brown escalated fast ‘Why don’t we do all the champions, and Bruce as well?’ Zak being one of the biggest fans of motorsport history I’ve ever met, we had most of the statue’s poses nailed down immediately too in that same 10 minutes. I distinctly remember Zak banging the table as he stood to leave ‘You can do this, right?” as I’m sat there shell shocked nodding yes, yet in reality having no place to be so sure. Yet here we are, 2/3rds of the way through the project, each and every sculpture created referencing raced assets from McLaren’s extensive archives, each one bringing new challenges to the fore, before they begin creating their own story that is out of my hands, after they’re installed at MTC Woking.
Amore De Deus
When a champion and hero is taken too soon, it creates a legend. Immortality comes when that legend is perpetuated and even accelerated by impassioned worshipers around the world, with some legends so powerful that those stories shall be told and celebrated forever to create an almost saintly deity. Immortality, spirituality, and transcending to another dimension aren't exclusively religious notions, but equally for many it cannot be separated from the love of God.
Do Amor De Deus.
An 18 month journey to create this homage to my own personal hero, Ayrton Senna of Brazil. In perpetuity with a life-size hyper-realistic bronze, marking 30 years since that tragic weekend in Imola. Never forgotten.
When I unveiled the Senna’s life-size ‘Eau Rouge’ bronze, everything changed. I’d been creating sculpture for a while, had already been F1’s official artist for many years and live painted regularly for teams and with Paddock Club. Indeed it was this exposure which gave me the confidence to invest so heavily in the 18 month project it took to create, but I could never have predicted where this trajectory would lead. Launched at Autosport International in January 2019 and ‘Eau Rouge’ immediately went viral through socials and motorsport press, my world went nuts, and it’s ever since been what I’m principally known for, and introduced as. McLaren bought No.1 to stand next to his dominant MP4/4 on their famous MTC boulevard and suddenly I was part of the most iconic F1 museum in the world, employed from then on to celebrate McLaren’s own history with bronze effigy’s of each of their champions, at least 10 years’ work in all. Each statue is painstakingly recreated focusing on dynamic, character and the most accurate detail, with assets borrowed from McLaren’s own archives and even the champions own DNA, using James Hunt’s son Freddie as body double in his father’s race suit. Following Ayrton, McLaren’s inspirational founder Bruce was unveiled in June 2020 by his daughter Amanda, to mark 50 since his passing. Niki Lauda was next in May 2021 to mark 3 years, and James Hunt in 2023 to commemorate 30 years. Who’s next? Stay tuned... As with most of my sculpture work limited editions are created in several scales; life-size, 60%, and 20%.