Wheels on the canvas

Ian Cook is an accomplished painter, but with a difference. He customises remote-controlled cars and uses them to spread and splatter colours all over large canvases.

Ian Cook works on one of his race-car inspired creations at the Yas Marina Circuit. Courtesy Yasalam

ABU DHABI // Ian Cook's art is creating a buzz. A faint, motorised, battery-operated buzz. At Yas Hotel, the 27-year-old artist sat near a work in progress, working the controls of a toy remote-controlled car ploughing through swaths of paint.

Mr Cook, who is from Birmingham, in the UK, forgoes the usual strokes of a brush, preferring to create large-scale racing scenes by coating the cars' wheels in water-based acrylics and scooting them around a canvas. He rolls the models through special inks, spins wheels to mix colours, and bounces tyres over his motorsport masterpieces. "Some painters go to an art shop to get the best brushes. I go to a toy shop to buy mine," he says, kneeling over a transmitter as he steers a toy Mini Cooper through a streak of Ferrari red.

Mr Cook's completed work of an F1 speedster rounding Yas Marina Circuit will be exhibited in next month's Yasalam Art of Racing Galleria. The artist, a racing enthusiast, began creating what he calls "radio-controlled art" nearly three years ago. He has since painted almost 200 works in the style, most measuring 2.5 metres by 1.5 metres, and many depicting cars. "There's a mixture of things I use," he says. "Battery-operated cars, where I use the wheels to mix the paint; there's actual car tyres, some toy car wheels. It gives you different treads so different textures can be made."

The fading colour trails and tracks left by the toy cars create the impression of motion. "When you have that kind of movement, it gives the essence of speed and what the whole race is about," he says. This will be the second year that Mr Cook's works will be on display during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Last year, he created four images of the Yas Marina speedway, each painted live at the course. This year's F1 art exhibition, running from October 25 to November 15, will showcase the works of painters, photographers and sculptors.

It will be the first art exhibition dedicated to F1, says Holly Murray, of KHP Consulting, which is organising art displays for the Yasalam entertainment programme. "And it's free," she says. "The public can come to the Ghaf Gallery and see international artists from all over the world." In a live demonstration, Mr Cook will show how he employs a "travelling set" of 23 toy and remote-controlled cars, as well as several tyres, to create one painting.

"I have hundreds of the cars back at my studio. This is a new one, that's an old one, that's a used one," he says, pointing out battered replicas including Chevrolets, a VW Beetle, and a Corvette. A new Mustang and a pristine red Ferrari were purchased last week at Abu Dhabi Mall. Many of the plastic bodies have been modified with masking tape, or have had their wheel housings carved out for added manoeuvrability. The tyres often get "clogged up" with paint, he says.

"Sometimes I'll retire a car or I'll fall out of love with a car," he says. "It may look random, but I know where those particular wheels are with me and which car is the right car I need for painting. Like this one," he says, holding up a car with treadless wheels. "These are quite slick, so they're good for spreading something very quickly." Kneeling on a foam pad worn thin from use, Mr Cook's method is messy; he often gets covered in paint.

About 10 remote-controls are at his disposal at any time, all programmed to various frequencies. "I've had people watch me at the circuit creating, and they've said, 'How do you do it?' I say it's all done using the cars, and they're like, 'No, no, I don't believe you'," he says. "But they've watched me do it." An original work by Mr Cook can sell for as much as £7,000 (Dh41,000), but anyone who visits the Art of Racing Galleria next month will have the chance to win one.

Visitors will also have the opportunity to win customised helmets designed by the Canadian artist Art Rotondo, who has been commissioned by the likes of Mario Andretti and Gary Paffett.