Loading the Autos as Art bus with canvases.

First public show at Festival of Speed 2005

ABOUT

AUTOS AS ART -  James Clay

After years of doing non art related work to pay the bills, I finally got started on a photography based business project in late 2004.  The plan was simple: print some of my favourite images onto canvas, learn how to stretch and wrap, and see if anybody would be interested in having my images hanging on their wall!

During my formative years my family had moved around Europe, and I had been to US Army schools during the late 60s, early 70s.  Can vividly remember walking through the PX car park in Mannheim, Germany, in the summer of 1969, seeing what were brand new muscle cars in garish colours freshly delivered to US service personnel.  My Dad dismissed them as “gas guzzlers and Yanktanks”, but the seed had been sown…All the cars back in England looked like little cottages on wheels, too restrained and underpowered, with a few exceptions.  My Dinky/Corgi cars were always my favourite toys, and it wasn’t long before I was filling the margins of my schoolbooks with car sketches.  Some of them are truly awful, and most highly unrealistic, but the roads of the late 70s and early 80s would have been a more exciting place to be if I’d had my way!  This taste of American lifestyle had a lasting effect on me, and that includes my photography and choice of cars today.  Trips to the USA are annual events, with car shows, and photographic detours all part of the fun. I have owned a few of the cars that influenced me including a 70 Dodge Challenger, T’bird, 68 GT390 Mustang, pickup trucks and currently a 1964 Dodge Polara.  Autos as Art also has a 1969 Dodge A108 as show transport!

Autos as Art had its first public show at The Goodwood Festival of Speed in June 2005.  I booked a stand, and with some trepidation printed enough images to hang. On the Friday morning, I opened the stand to find out if anyone was interested!  It was a bit like having practiced playing a guitar in your bedroom, and then walking on stage at Woodstock!  Luckily the crowd didn’t boo me off stage, and by lunchtime Autos as Art had made its first sales.

Many visitors to the stand asked if I had a website, and so after a busy couple of months my first website went live.  This is my new site, necessary as I had more images, and the old site had become too busy.   I have refined photographic techniques and changed almost exclusively to digital photography.  Commissioned works have become very popular and  I have spent many enjoyable hours photographing cars for their owners. 

Plans for the future include doing more shows; I really enjoy meeting people and hearing their comments.  The images look so much better in reality than they do on screen, and most of my web sales come from people who have seen the pictures hanging, and decide to buy at a later date. 

 I hope you enjoy looking at my pictures; I’d be pleased to hear any comments, so send me an email.