The British Grand Prix of 1973 was held on the 14th of July at Silverstone in Northamptonshire, England. The dramatic race opened with a massive crash in the very first lap that caused 11 of the 29 competing cars to drop out of the race. Ultimately, driver Denny Hulme of New Zealand snagged a third-place finish in the #7 McLaren M23, which featured a McLaren-tuned 2.9L naturally-aspirated Ford-Cosworth V8 boasting 490hp. Among the spectators that day was an awestruck nine-year-old boy in a raincoat and glasses, inspired by the power of the machines and skill of the drivers. It was only his second time at the races, but the excitement of that race would inform the direction his life would take for decades to come.
Photographer Richard Warminsham was also at the races that day, and by sheer chance captured the young boy on film while focusing on the #7 McLaren (the boy is pictured just behind the front wheel on the left side). In this 1973 photograph [1], the boy watched the powerful new McLaren as they prepped it for a successful run, accompanied by his younger brother (to his right) and his father and mother (also to the right, next to and behind his younger brother). Even by the age of nine, he had developed an eye and an artistic talent for drawing and painting these machines. It is rare that photographic evidence is available to demonstrate a lifelong passion so thoroughly, but artist Simon Ward was elated to stumble across this picture of his younger self 48 years later. Simon had been scanning historic images online and thinking that for all the time he spent around these cars as a child, he must have been captured on film at some point; as it happens, he was, and this picture is proof of his origin story.
Simon Ward and family, captured by Richard Warminsham, 1973.07.14 [01]
Today Simon is a globally-respected painter, with a body of work favoring the style and athleticism of some of the most fantastic motorsports machines and drivers in racing history, although that is not his only talent. His portfolio also includes portraits and custom work on request from enthusiastic patrons (full disclosure: in the fall of 2020 I became one of those patrons).
I was introduced to Simon by Dustin Lanterman, the Facilities Director of the Saratoga Automobile Museum, after Dustin sent me a message saying he had told a famous artist about my derelict postwar Cadillac that had been resurrected after 32 years of neglect. Simon had developed an interest in painting the car after hearing her dramatic story, and wanted to speak with me.[For the story of Topaz, see: https://mlempert0.wixsite.com/anachronist/post/art-deco-mposition-the-incomplete-history-of-topaz]
Simon Ward original painting of Topaz (completed September 2020)- my brother Sam developed the initial concept of the derelict Cadillac sitting at an American hilltop drive-in theatre watching its younger self on screen, where the filming location was Cape Town, South Africa (acrylic on canvas)
As it happens, Simon and I shared an interest deeper than just the appearance of the machines; we enjoyed telling stories, albeit with different media. I relied on ink, and Simon used acrylic paint. Our first call was nearly an hour long, and ranged from our classic car interests, to events we had attended, collectors and drivers we admired, and other current events at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic when we were both suddenly trapped in different and unexpected scenarios.
Simon describes his transition from someone who paints as a hobby to someone who paints as a profession as having occurred maybe in a single day: 25 August 1986. He attended the Birmingham Super Prix, where he took a bus into the city centre and explored the circuit carrying his portfolio of gouache-on-paper works hoping to meet future patrons. Exactly that happened: Simon had a conversation with driver Ivan Capelli, and a few weeks later, Capelli mailed a letter with instructions to call him at home in Milan, Italy to discuss a possible commission. Since Simon’s own home was too busy to return a professional call, he went down the street to call back Capelli from a public phone box, and that resulted in his first commission from an F1 racing driver. Capelli had requested some artwork of his cars in action at Grand Prix events.
Photograph of the Birmingham Super Prix [2]
Only a few years later, Simon received multiple commissions from driver Riccardo Patrese at the 1993 European Grand Prix and Donington Park. As was often the case at sporting events in Britain in April, the event was doused in freezing rain. Simon met with Patrese at the neighboring Holiday Inn after Patrese finished qualifying, and there they reviewed scenes the drivers wanted of his various cars. Simon returned to his studio after, and over the course of the following months, painted a series of works covering Patrese’s racing career in Formula one and other motorsports events.
The same weekend that he met with Patrese in 1993, Simon snapped what would end up being one of his last photographs of his hero, Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna, who was killed just short of one year later when his car left the racing course at the San Marino Grand Prix and crashed into an exposed concrete wall. Simon maintains that even almost 30 years later, it is still difficult for him to paint the iconic yellow helmet.
Driver Ivan Capelli later ended up racing for Ferrari, among other teams, and it was not long before Simon started seeing his commissions in the background of video interviews with the likes of Gordon Murray (designer of the McLaren F1), and other significant designers, drivers, and celebrities in racing circles and elsewhere. At one point, Simon encountered Mark Webber at the AVON tire awards, and ended up producing a series of paintings for Webber’s staff as a thank you from management. Simon followed Mark through his F1 career, and Mark ultimately commissioned over 50 paintings in total. Years after that first meeting, Simon moved home to Buckinghamshire to a house only 6 miles from the Silverstone course, where he could hear the sound of racing machines daily from his home. One day, he visited a retired mechanic nearby for dinner, only to find one of his own paintings proudly displayed in the mechanic’s home, a gift from Mark Webber!
Simon made his international rounds in order to gather inspiration and meet new potential clients, attending about 25 races each year: Grand Prix events, LeMans, Indianapolis 500, Daytona, and Sebring, among others. He traveled between continents carrying a portfolio of artwork featuring F1, Group C, British Touring Cars, and other subjects. He was also an invited artist to the Coys Historic Festival (now Silverstone Classic) for 10 consecutive years.
Simon is at least as humble as he is talented, and prefers not to boast about his extensive and impressive client list – extracting the details for this brief biography was challenging enough. His accomplishments include the Sebring posters and program art from about 1991-2005, and the series of paintings still on display at the Sebring Regional Airport, which serves as the gateway where almost all racing participants and spectators pass through on route to the races. Simon added that his discomfort with self-promoting has become even more uncomfortable with the introduction of social media (which also has become a critical outlet for generating interest in his work), where boasting about one’s own exploits is rather the point.
Maserati 250F at 1957 Monaco Grand Prix, driven by Juan Miguel Fangio (acrylic on canvas)
It may be a surprise upon viewing his work, but Simon has no formal training in the arts. Before the 1986 Grand Prix that served as the defining moment in transitioning to a career artist, he worked in a factory where he constructed mechanical pumps for automobiles. His exposure to pencil, ink, and painting mediums was entirely self-taught and rooted in his obsession with replicating the excitement of the vehicles he witnessed in action as a child. He recalls that his father had wanted him to be a mechanic, despite offering no technical guidance whatsoever.
Simon remembered that “…[my father] never taught me how to change a spark plug. I didn’t have a clue about what anything meant, so I ended up working at a factory that made pumps for different applications, water pumps and such. But I was allergic to the coolant they used to keep the metal from burning up - it keeps the metal from scorching when cutting - so my hands were covered in blisters. I would still paint in the evenings and on the weekends…and after some time, I went back to college for two years to get a few more qualifications, and decided to start painting professionally.” [3]
Simon prides himself on his almost religious attendance at motorsports events such as Spa Monza, Laguna Seca, Sebring, Silverstone, Daytona, Indianapolis 500, and others. He recalls that he attended every single British Grand Prix event between 1972 and 2001, and that he still hasn’t missed more than a handful of events in the time since. His presence in the live audience is heavily influential in determining the content he pursues in his artwork. When pressed about how he arrives at the scenes and vehicles he chooses to paint, he elaborated: “I see things and you can’t get it out of your head…that’s why I don’t research in advance, because then you get too many ideas in your head. I work on one painting at a time to avoid having too many things in my head and to get it onto a canvas. Each artist is different, and I don’t like working too quickly, but sometimes you have to. I once did a painting in 6 hours – and I sold it!” [3]
One of my personal favorites: the iconic Gulf Porsche 917 (#20) driven at Lemans 24hrs by Brian Redman and Jo Siffert - it became famous as the Steve McQueen "LeMans" movie car; note the "hippie" psychedelic 917 long-tail in the background (acrylic on canvas)
On the day I met Simon Ward for the first time, I had no idea what to expect. After staging Topaz (my 1947 Cadillac, and the subject of the painting that brought us together), my brother and I wandered through the Saratoga Automobile Museum fall auction lineup for a bit, until a pickup truck arrived, and a man emerged wearing a button-down casual shirt, jeans, and a bandana. I turned to my brother and said “that has to be the man we are here to meet – he looks like an artist.”
In fact it was Simon, and not many pictures of the artist exist. He says, “I don’t have a lot of pictures of myself, I don’t think people are interested in what I look like, I just let the art do the talking. I’ve been told that I look like Keith Richards, but more human.” All due respect to Keith Richards, it is not an inaccurate assessment, and though any dialogue with Simon is full of British witticisms such as “have a giggle”, and dry, often self-deprecating humor, I suspect he likens himself to Richards with a subtle hint of pride.
Indeed, Simon Ward is remarkably down-to-Earth and human, a dedicated artist and proud father of two now-adult children, his son Oliver (23) and daughter Pollyanna (29). Developing a friendship grounded in a mutual respect for our passions has been a great privilege and honor. Simon’s work is currently on display in a variety of venues, and he is always working on developing new techniques and pushing the boundaries of his subject matter into new realms. He also thinks that sometimes, stepping away from a genre (racing, for example) and into something new allows him to develop his skills, and when he returns to that genre later the art has evolved and his eyes and mind can see things in a fresh, new way – changing subjects allows him to push his art forwards.
As of this writing, the artist is working with a new company, Studio 1203 (a film and television outfit based on Nashville and Los Angeles). One of their projects involves detailing the careful reconstruction of a 1935 Auburn Boattail Speedster, which Simon had recently painted as part of a series of explorations into Art Deco automotive subjects that began with his painting of my Cadillac “Topaz”. A fall exhibition at the Hershey, PA concours generated several more Art Deco car paintings, including the pale yellow 1935 Auburn driven by actress Marlene Dietrich in the film “Desire”. For the Dietrich Speedster he chose a heavily researched background of 1930s Los Angeles at Wilshire Boulevard and Westwood Avenue. An alternative setting for another version of the Auburn was shown in his second painting, which featured a bright red Auburn 851 Supercharged Boattail in front of the famous Griffith Space Observatory (perched on a cliff overlooking Los Angeles at dusk), which was built in the same year as the car and shares an Art Deco architectural flair. Several more paintings are in the queue featuring some of the most beautiful and unique 1920s and 1930s designs. One of Simon’s paintings of a Duesenberg Model J was selected as the 2021 Christmas card design for the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg (ACD) Museum.
Some of Simons more recent works focusing on dramatic luxury cars rather than racing cars. From left to right: 1935 Auburn 851 Speedster in Los Angeles (driven by Marlene Dietrich), 1935 Auburn 851 Speedster at Griffith Observatory, 1929 Duesenberg Model J Phaeton, 1925 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Jonckheere Coupe at Petersen Automotive Museum, and 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Convertible
Simon says “…it is a wonderful journey, a voyage of discovery and a massive learning curve, if you have never stood next to a Duesenberg you have no idea of the beauty and scale, the design and care that has gone into making one of these unique machines.” [04] It is indeed difficult to convey the scale of a Duesenberg even in words, but a typical long-wheelbase 1929 Duesenberg Model J could weigh as much as 6,000-lbs and the wheelbase alone was 12’ long – one example of a 1937 model was nearly 22’ long overall!
Simon hopes that following the pandemic, he will be able to return to traveling and experiencing races live again – especially LeMans, which is his favorite to paint. It has been said that his work captures the atmosphere of the races so well, that the sound of the engines and smell of petrol and tire smoke seem to come off the canvas, and for that, he credits his live experiences at the track. His work revolves around telling stories, and in a way his paintings are focused on bringing these cars back to life. Simon says the easy part is choosing a car to paint and deciding on the setting. His goal is to translate his lifetime of painting and racing into something tangible for his clients and racing enthusiasts to enjoy. In closing, he says, “the point of the paintings is speed…and there is always something to paint – every car has a story, a history, and a memory.”
Michael Lempert | The Anachronist
Rochester, NY
2022.01.16
P.S.: If you would like to purchase a Simon Ward Original, please contact me via e-mail at mlempert@buffalo.edu. Multiple works are available for sale, in various media and sizes.
Note: This article has been revised and re-published after it originally appeared in the Summer 2021 issue of the Saratoga Automobile Museum magazine "CURATED" - see the original version here: https://issuu.com/saratogaautomuseum/docs/curated-001-print-web
Sidebar: 1957 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado Brougham
In the winter of 2021, Simon called to discuss a subject for a painting that he wanted to develop. He was looking for ideas for extraordinary cars, and wanted something striking to set in New York City at night. I had just learned that one of the most extraordinary American sedans ever built had been added to the collection at the Buffalo Transportation Pierce-Arrow Museum (located in Buffalo, NY): a stunning Copenhagen Blue (1 of 24 such examples) 1957 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado Brougham. The Fleetwood Eldorado Brougham, which cost $13,000 in 1957, remains the most expensive Cadillac to date, and out-priced many Rolls-Royce cars by a factor of two - it featured an air suspension, a full stainless steel roof, suicide doors, and in some examples a built in stainless steel bar set in the glove box. Simon dispatched me to the museum to document the car in detail, which he then used as the basis for his painting.
Painting of the 1957 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado Brougham at night in Times Square, with an easter egg for car enthusiasts hidden in the details
Photo documentation of the 1957 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado Brougham at the Buffalo Transportation Pierce-Arrow Museum, where it is currently on display
Resources + Additional Information:
[01] Photo by Richard Warminsham, 1973.07.14
[02] Photo from 1987 Super Prix: https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/gallery/pictures-show-birminghams-superprix-back-14629376
[03] Interview with Simon Ward, 2:00 2021.02.26
[04] Follow-up Interview with Simon Ward, 2021.10.16
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