THE ART OF KIRSTEN WILLIAMSON

Kirsten Williamson was already a talented artist when she happened upon a James Bond exhibition in London in 2014, as she strolled through the exhibit looking over film memorabilia, props, posters, and costumes she saw an original screen-used 007 Aston Martin DB5.

Seeing a DB5 up close will stop almost anyone in their tracks, but for Kirsten it changed the direction of her life. She decided she’d draw a 1:1 scale life-sized version of the car so she could forever park it in her living room.

The idea progressed to wanting to draw a car owned by a real person with a real story. Her personal style is influenced by the films, music, and culture of the 1960’s and 1970’s. With arguably more style icons than any other time period; Steve McQueen, Le Mans, the drivers of Formula 1, and the Rat Pack all became solid favourites.

KIRSTEN WILLIAMSON’S SUPERCAR GARAGE

Frank Sinatra’s 1969 Lamborghini Miura became the inspiration for her first piece. The Sinatra piece was so large that she went to a hardware store and bought a 7 foot wide section of plywood to use as a base – it took 5 months of pencils, paper and lots of coffee, drawing full time, to achieve a level of detail that she was happy with.

Over the years since she first saw the DB5, Kirsten has devoted thousands of hours to painstakingly creating her immersive pieces, each featuring an iconic car or a borderline sacred piece of motoring history – like James Hunt’s Formula 1 helmet.

Kirsten’s approach to drawing is clean and mechanical, as if the car is being viewed in a white-walled museum environment to ensure that nothing interferes with the vision of the car. She aspires to show that a car is as individual as its owner: the unique details, scratches and markings are what makes a particular car belong to someone. To her, that’s where the story is and what she immortalises on paper – so that it can be enjoyed in any space or place as large as life.

TEXT BY BEN BRANCH - complete article here.