The Classic Car and Motorsport Artist Who Does It All
Younger than his talent may suggest, over the last few years Australian artist and photographer Jayson Fong has been photographing some of the world’s most iconic classic and racing machines.
What makes him different, however, is that his career is quite different from his first career path: to be a car designer. We talked to Fong about his artistic method and approach when painting and photographic vintage metal.
First, you should understand that Fong only recently took up photography. “To be honest,” Fong says with a chuckle, “I never considered myself a photographer. The art always came first.”
With the desire to become a successful painter, however, one of the limitations Fong quickly discovered is a lack of source material. If you’re painting a racing car from the ’60s, for instance, your work as an artist relies upon the photos captured while that particular car was racing. If there’s no documentation available, it’s up to your imagination—but accuracy often suffers. “Especially with historic cars,” Fong says, “you have to rely on original photographs.”
What better way to capture compelling source material for vintage racing than to get it yourself? And so Fong moved from Australia to the UK to be closer to his subjects. Now, there’s a vintage racing event almost every weekend to attend and, as a result, he’s never been closer to the legends he learned about in his youth.
“Usually, at events I want to be in two places at once,” Fong says. “In most cases now, though, the photos I take are the inspiration for the art I make. Really, it’s an opportunity to make the entire creative process mine.”
As you can see, Fong blends traditional painting techniques with modern technology and materials, creating art that shows motorsport’s well-known personalities and machines frozen in various states of fury.
With the talent to capture both people and cars from any angle, his artwork displays the same freedom to either reproduce a subject in its historic context or to reimagine it in a new, abstract, and stylized fashion. That way, Fong’s artwork is free to depict history in a way that’s more engrossing than photographs can.
You can also find Jayson Fong at his website
