Artist Armin Flossdorf is coming to Le Royal Méridien to exhibit his F1 art. Caitlyn Davey spoke to him about why he paints what he does.
How did you get into doing this specific type of art?
During my school years I was more interested in Formula One than in anything else. I worked in advertising agencies in the position of an art director, then decided to work self-employed and used the idea of painting just one single F1 painting to push my first official steps as a designer. I saw that I was very fast while working on canvas again and contacted German television companies and they were interested at once to broadcast a live painting during a sports television show. After that it was a self-running idea.
How do you best capture the speed and energy in your art?
If you decide on a direction in the arts you must be a part of it. The most important thing when working out an artwork are the sketches. So before I start with colour on canvas I have an idea of various situations the car will be shown. When colour becomes the main theme of the action I have everything in mind and it’s just fulfilling the whole drama.
Do you use any other subjects apart from cars?
Since my studies at university, I have been a figurative painter. I studied the human figure so I work with people as well as cars. I do portraits on canvas and paper.
Do you prefer to stick with a distinctive colour-palette?
I love the red colour most – yes that’s fact. It’s a part of my personal experience that all ranges of the red colour from orange to dark red have a better quality than the others, but this is a very personal point of view. I can imagine that there are artists who say the exact opposite of course.
What is the best part of your job?
We must differentiate between two parts of my job. The one part is the work and creation itself, the other part is the presentation. As I said the most important part is the sketching. A really glorious feeling is when you see how easy it is to create with colours when you have everything in mind and you are part of the whole thing. The artwork is already finished in your mind and you are just an instrument with brushes, and you see how the artwork is going into directions which were not planned before. That’s the first; second is the presentation and the talks with people which is always the crown after a finished artwork.
A New Perspective on Fine Arts of Formula 1 Racing Cars with Armin Flossdorf will show at Le Royal Méridien October 31 (02 674 2020).
