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Paul Chenard Awesome Automobile Art

March 19th, 2009

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A couple of months ago I received a card in the snail mail. It was not a thank you, birthday or congratulations card, but a prismacolor penciled print, numbered 56/75, which simply said ‘Wishing You and Yours a Stirling Holiday’. The artist, Paul Chenard, had autographed the work.

After rechecking the address and considering my association with the automotive world, I rationalized this exquisite rendering of Sir Stirling Moss pulling his Aston Martin DBR1 ahead of Phil Hill’s Ferrari in a 1959 car race, two legendary giants of the racing world duking it out, was indeed destined for me.

I couldn’t take my eyes off the print, Sir Stirling’s Aston Martin drifting ever so slightly through a turn with Hill’s red Ferrari TR59 trailing. There is no background in the rendering. No foreground to speak of either other than two curved white lines depicting the edges of the track. Just two cars driven in competition, frozen in time by the hand of Paul Chenard, whoever he might be.

I have never been an aficionado of sports car racing and admit my knowledge of the sport is limited. But I left the card propped up against my computer for a few weeks. On the back of the card was a website address, Automobiliart.com... Impressions of Speed, and an e-mail address as well. So I wrote a note to Paul Chenard and thanked him for sending me print #56/75 of his 1959 Nürburgring 1000 km Race.

The card eventually migrated from its place on my desk and I lost track of it. But on the evening of the 30th anniversary of the incorporationn of my company, Odyssey International Ltd, it returned. My wife Lisa, who obviously knew how captivated I was by both the drawing and the generosity of Paul Chenard, presented me with a framed copy of the work.

It was now obvious that I had to meet the man who took the time to send me something that would inspire for years so I got in touch with Mr. Chenard.

Paul is a graphic designer who works for the Nova Scotia government. Like me, he has always been a car nut, collecting Dinky toys as a kid and consumed in all things related to the automotive world. But unlike me, Paul could draw, spending hours sketching cars, airplanes, even car wrecks… anything with wheels. If he was not drawing, he was melting down his toys and making new ones with the molten metal.

After getting a degree in Graphic Design from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Paul settled into a career with the provinicial government designing logos and brochures and assisting in developing the visual image the province of Nova Scotia projects to the world.

Since the 1980s Paul has been collecting vintage toy racecars and competition automobilia. Although his compilation of more than 1,000 pieces is an impressive lot, the pieces are not boxed sets that have never been enjoyed by a car-crazy toddler or teen.

“I like things with a story. It’s more appealing to me if a toy racecar has been played with and has had a life.”

His collection has grown to include racing board games, vintage magazines, racecar history books and even toy tops and marmalade pots adorned with racecars. Without proper space to display most of his collection, Paul has created a website to host his treasures. http://racecartoys.piczo.com.

Three years ago Paul decided he wanted to leave a legacy that was more than a collection of auto racing memorabilia, so he turned to an assimilation of his roots in drawing, his profession as a graphic designer and his seemingly infinite knowledge of the history of motorsport. The result was an insatiable appetite to produce an impressive portfolio of automotive art that can be viewed and purchased at automobiliart.com

“I usually do just enough peripheral detail to place the race, or the car. I try to capture the ‘feeling’ the spectator has watching the race. The driver in battle. The classic race car at rest.” The affable artist’s eyes light up as he describes the detail and purpose of his work.

Paul Chenard has created a portfolio of automotive art that is beginning to be noticed all over the world. I was particularly drawn to a series of stunning 1950s Grand Prix racing engines. A four-print series of Phil Hill’s wins for Ferrari, illustrated in European comic-book style signed by the legendary driver takes my breath away.

As the easy-going 50-year-old artist hovered over a Juan Manuel Fangio/Lancia D24/'53 La Carrera Panamericana illustration that has been chosen for the next L'art et l'automobile International Auction, he laments, “Other than a couple a trips, I have not really been anywhere, but I travel a lot in my mind.”

“Where do you go from here, Paul?” I eventually asked, as he explained the thought process behind his latest collection of racecar interiors called ‘The Office’.

“I built a railroad. The train is ready and the tracks are done. I don’t really know where the train is going. But it’s my train.”

And that’s a train that anyone with an appreciation for automotive art should be checking out.

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