Popbang Colour

• Posted by Fleur Fuller
• 26.01.12 @ 10:40 AM

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The process of painting using radio controlled cars started in 2007 when an ex-girlfriend bought Cook a radio controlled car (Lightening Mcqueen from Cars) and told him “not to take it down my studio and not to get paint on it!”

Ian has always been a car enthusiast and an artist too, so putting the two together was the best way to produce artwork. PopbangColour is how Ian describes the artwork, this being ‘a friendly explosion of colour.’

Following early work of colour circles, and creating basic images such as logos, Cook started to create Cars - and then painting live at events around the UK. such as the Goodwood Festival of Speed

Having been spotted at the event in 2008, Cook was commissioned to create a giant portrait of Lewis Hamilton for Reebok in Central London, the artwork 12m x 8m or the size of a 3 storey building. Following this Ian was able to go ‘full time’ as the only artist in the world to create  artworks using radio controlled cars.

Since 2008, Cook has created for a number of different brands and companies including Nissan, Chevrolet, Jaguar Land Rover, Ford, Citroen and Arsenal. Creating at a variety of event including the F1 in Abu Dhabi. Cook has also painted with real cars for Comma Oils and more recently created the Jaguar Land Rover careers advert.

Cook has his own art car that is his daily drive, a Chevy SpART that is wrapped in his artwork, which sits on 17inch wheels and has most of the official accessories book added to it too.

Most recently Cook created the SENNA movie artwork at the Autosport show, which has received a great deal of interest virally through social media. Popbangcolour is also artist in residence at the Heritage Motor Centre, Warwickshire, UK.

SENNA movie artwork creation at Autosport International

•   The SENNA movie artwork was created at the Autosport International show at the NEC, on Saturday 14th January.

•   It came to be created as there was a special Senna Tribute at the Autosport International event, it made sense to create a one-off associated Senna related artwork.

•   Also as Cook is a big motorsport and car fan, to create an iconic image of a racing hero at an event that he was being celebrated worked as an idea and concept. 

•   For Christmas Ian received the SENNA movie as a present from my parents, and felt that to re-create the iconic movie artwork would make a great artwork to paint live at the event - and a spectacle to watch.

•   The creation and permission to paint the image came about after Ian known as @popbangcolour on twitter ‘tweeted’ @SENNAmovie to say that he had an idea / a possibility for an artwork creation - this tweeted over the Christmas break.

•   From the initial tweet, Cook was contacted directly by the PR agency in charge of promoting the SENNA movie through social media.

•   Permission was granted officially by film’s distributors to recreate the artwork, live at the Autosport event - it to be done on the first public day of the show on the Saturday.

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