This is an atmospheric picture and was based on the last oil painting I produced as a student at the Royal College of Art before I graduated in 1974.
Its very tone and colour show the direction my work would take in the future. The car of the title is not easy to see at first glance, but its slightly menacing form coming up the hill at speed gives the picture a feeling of unease.
The car depicted in the picture is an Armstrong Siddeley, an enigmatic vehicle for sure and with the radiator surmounted by that enigmatic creature, the Sphinx. The picture pays homage in its structure to my favourite film maker Alfred Hitchcock and calls to mind the crop dusting sequence from the film ‘North by Northwest’, in which the totally bewildered Advertising Executive Roger O Thornhill (wonderfully played by Cary Grant) is mistaken for a spy and is relentlessly pursued.
There is also more than a little influence of my favourite painter Edward Hopper and also that of my old painting Professor Carel Weight, who was a wonderful depictor of people, gardens and brick walls.
The picture is set on a sunny day when one would little suspect the presence of skulduggery.
