Alan's brush with life in fast lane

Alan Fearnley's evocative portraits of classic cars have been shown in galleries across Europe and England.

For 11 years Mr Fearnley, from Ilkley, held an annual exhibition in Monte Carlo at the time of the glamorous Grand Prix.

It has been opened by Monaco royal Prince Albert twice and once by Prince Ranier, and been visited by a host of drivers including Damon Hill, Jackie Stewart and Juan Manuel Fangio.

And the 56-year-old artist believes his works, which he describes as "male interest", are so revered because they do not just represent the form of the car, they capture the era it came from and the emotion of the time.

His beginnings were not so glamorous, however.

He started in the 1960s as a designer for card company W H Sharp in Brighouse which he says was a good grounding for his future work. He said: "You had to be able to do everything. They might give you the most boring ideas but you had to turn them into creative sensation." His focus changed after a meeting with David Mills of Grand Prix Sportique in the early 1980s and he began to use his oil painting skills which he had been honing during his card designing career.

Cars are not his only subjects. He also paints steam trains, clipper ships and World War II fighters.

But it is his work with Grand Prix cars which has brought him the most success.

One of Mr Fearnley's most prized works is of his Lagonda M45 placed in 1930s Ludgate Circus in London with St Paul's Cathedral in the background, a change from his previous paintings which had the car as the main focus rather than part of a scene.

He said: "I got the idea for the scene from another picture and it was so lovely I thought my car would look lovely in it. I just had to add some of the other cars of the time and costumes and it all came together."

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