About Phil Lightman
About me
I have been drawing and painting since my early childhood. I grew up at a busy petrol station en route to Dover, which ‘fuelled’ my enthusiasm for pretty much anything on 4 wheels.
Cars, buses & coaches, lorries and tractors all became frequent subjects for my early art.
This was a time before self-service and supermarket fuel stations, and few UK cars were diesel, let alone electric! Once I was old enough, I helped my parents out by serving fuel at weekends.
Art education ended when I left school, and art generally took a back seat in my early adult life. A mid-life resolution to do more art in the 1990s led me to take up evening classes, giving me the confidence to join local art societies, with sales and commissions following on.
Although my subject matter was highly varied, including wildlife and local scenes, it was the car drawings I did as gifts for friends that set me on course to find my niche in automotive art.
I have therefore chosen to specialise in portraying cars, and greatly value the involvement my motoring art gives me into the increasingly popular classic car movement.
Although I will portray almost any vehicle, I do have a particular fondness for the curves and chrome of cars of the 50s through to the 70s that originally inspired my childhood art.
I have been a member of The Guild of Motoring Artists since 2015 www.motoringartists.com
My art is also featured on the website – www.automotiveartists.com.
My motoring art is mainly self-taught, and I constantly strive to improve my ability and techniques. I extensively study the work of other motoring artists.
I am now retired from a recent career closing roads (temporarily, I hasten to add!) for my local highway authority. I live with my wife and daughter in south-east Kent.
One of my early motoring art paintings was of Capel Filling Station, based on a promotional photo taken when my parents had won a ‘Golden Dipstick’ competition for oil sales – not a name that would be used nowadays!
The Jaguar was the first car I can very vaguely remember my dad owning (although it was actually white), succeeded by a British Racing Green one that he later swapped for a Rover P5 3.0 litre Saloon. And yes, that’s me!
I drew this garage scene (not sure why it was Regent, since I lived at a BP station!) when I was very young, at a time when the Vauxhall PA Cresta and Ford Anglia were contemporary models!
For some reason, I can vaguely remember trying to get the windscreen pillars right on the PA, so I was really pleased that my parents saved all my early drawings.
My Work & Recognition
Guild of Motoring Artists
I have been a member of the Guild of Motoring Artists for several years now, a worldwide organisation for artists with a close connection to motoring and motorsport art, with a rigorous selection process www.motoringartists.com
Automotive Artists
I have also been selected for inclusion on the Automotive Artists website
Country Cards
Country Cards have used 2 different cards using montages of my paintings. It is gratifying to walk into a card shop and know that my images feature on a greetings card! The most recent one is still available and shown here.
Someone told me very recently that they had been sent such a card!
The British Shop - T-Shirts
I have been supplying images to The British Shop, a mail order company based in Germany, www.the-british-shop.de to use various images on their T-Shirts, initially a Land Rover then various other images, including several sports cars.
Although the T-Shirts are not available in the UK, (deliveries being restricted to Germany, Austria and Switzerland), I did meet someone wearing one at a local car show.
Here is the link to the T-Shirt: https://www.the-british-shop.de/Englische-Mode-fuer-Herren/Polohemden-und-Shirts/T-Shirt-Land-Rover-in-Hellgrau
Atlas Editions
Some of you may remember this leaflet, from a time when the above Jaguar image was used for several years as a free print in various Atlas Editions sales campaigns, in conjunction with a 1:43 model of a Mk 2 Jaguar.
I originally painted the image in 2013 for a local exhibition that was opened by a local celebrity who had previously owned a Jaguar Mk 2.
