By Brian Winer
There are many automotive fine art painters, most of whom cover the board on marques, depicting first one and then another, as whim dictates. Wallace Wyss, a relative newcomer to the field (his first painting was done in 2007) has intentionally focused on only two makes—Ferrari and the cars of Carroll Shelby, which includes Cobras and GT40s. Wyss will have a booth at Automobilia in Monterey. The booth will be open August 14 and 15th, 2012 from 10 a.m. to the early evening. The location is the Ballroom of the Embassy Suites hotel, located on US 1, just north of 68.
Recently Brian Winer caught up with Wyss and asked a few questions.
Winer: Why do you prefer Ferraris over other exotic cars?
Because Ferrari has had an astonishing amount of body styles through the years. I grew up loving the cars of the sixties when Ferrari started switching from front-engined to mid-engined in their race cars, so in my paintings I concentrate on that era. I am doing some of the race cars now, like the 250P, 250LM, P3/4 and the like. Of the Cobras, there’s much less variation in body style, but I do a lot of those to tie in with my books on Cobra, like SHELBY: The Man, The Cars, The Legend.
Winer: Why, in some of your artwork, is there no background or a blurred background?
That’s because when I got to an event, I shoot a car whenever I have an opportunity, despite the background. I remember one time as I was walking over to the Pebble Beach concours, I saw a P3/4 drive by on the way to the show grounds so I shot it going by and later find there’s there’s an old Chevy pickup behind it, spoiling the vintage look of the painting. So I abstracted the background.
Winer: Is all your work in color?
About 95%, though I had the idea of doing some in monochromatic in imitation of old black and white photos that turn burnt sienna in time. Turns out it’s a lot harder than I thought than doing it in full color so I have only done two so far.
Winer: What artist do you admire most?
In the automotive field, Ken Dallison. He’s a world master in watercolors. I was once in advertising and we hired him for the day to do a Corvette brochure I was writing. So I got to see a world class artist work by sitting right next to him. He is also quite a historian and does a lot of research on the people in his paintings and what clothes they wore in the original era of the car. I also like Harold Cleworth for his experience in 24-sheet boards and how he brings that to his canvases, Tim Layzell for his flat color use, Jay Koka for always stretching the limits on what automotive art is–in fact I like a good many of those that make up the Automotive Fine Arts Society and recommend their art show at Pebble Beach.
Winer: And what media do you prefer?
I started out with watercolors but those were too weak, so I switched to acrylic oils which act like watercolors when wet, and sometimes add pastel crayons, pencil, pen, etc. Sometimes I cut the car out I’ve painted and glue it on a different background so in that case it becomes ‘mixed media.’
Winer: Do you make a practice of numbering and signing all your work?
When I offer work in the form of 12” x 18” prints on watercolor paper, I sign them all but some are numbered in a limited edition and others–the first off the press– are signed “artist’s proof” because at that point I am still dialing in the colors. For instance, on the 250P painting I just completed, the color of the car in my original painting and the color it came out in the print varied as much as 30% so I have to make a few prints to dial in the right color.
Winer: How can we get a list of all the prints you have in stock?
Collectors can e-mail me at photojournalistpro2@gmail.com