The Atmosphere and Light of Classic Racing: Barry Rowe

Images: Barry Rowe

“An atmosphere and interaction that allows you to see every automobile at its finest.”

Capturing light, atmosphere and auto racing with a unique and immersive style, Barry Rowe’s automobile art is uniquely evocative and atmospheric.

From Saturday mornings spent gazing at damaged racing cars left outside of Jaguar’s factory in Coventry Barry moved on to a career in advertising as an art director. From there he became a freelance painter, winning Sotherby’s prestigious Art Award with a portrait of Juan Manuel Fangio and now counting Aston Martin, Mercedes Benz, and Pebble Beach amongst his clientele.

And we can see why!

Art is something we seek out for some kind of reaction, emotion or response, and and Barry’s art certainly does that for us. It’s relaxing and evocative, capturing the adventures of auto racing with a classic feel and an almost impressionistic style.

Gentler than a lot of the art we’ve featured here, it emotes the colour, brilliance and grace of a classy age of motor racing.

In 1998 Barry painted his first poster for the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Today he’s working on his seventeenth, covering the Concours and Tour for the 2014 event. We can’t wait to see it, and look forward to seeing more of Barry’s work in the future!

Head to his official website, www.barryrowe.com, here for more information, to learn about his book Atmosphere and Light: The Automotive Art of Barry Rowe, available through David Bull Publishing, and get in contact with him.

Prints can be purchased from Historic Car Art here.

Thanks to Barry Rowe for taking the time to chat with us, and supplying the images you see here.

Images by Barry Rowe