Andy Atkinson Illustration 2024
After attaining A grades in his A level subjects of Art, and Design & Technology, Andy went into mainstream employment with the Post Office, to help fund his ambitions of a racing career of his own. He continued as a freelance artist, and was mainly self-taught with his art. In 2019 he was diagnosed with throat cancer and the resulting long-term treatment, and its effects, made him reconsider his life choices. He subsequently enrolled at the Northern School of Art to study for a BA Honors degree in Illustration and established himself as a full-time artist.
Andy’s two interests, Art and motorbike racing, developed into a passion, then became an obsession, pursuing a racing career himself from 1984-93. Racing at club and then National championship level provided him with the experience and sensory overload that he felt desperate to incorporate into his artwork. Trying to invoke a sense of synaesthesia and emotion within his works, Andy wants the observer to be transported to the scene and moment, feeling the vibration of the handlebars, the scream of the exhausts, the smell of burnt fuel, the slide of the tyres and the sheer adrenaline pumping through the rider. He feels an affinity with the racing era of the 80’s/90’s and the two-stroke machines which dominated, still owning a Honda RS 125 race bike like the last he raced in 1993.
Andy’s client list includes: Olivers Mount Racing; BikeSport News; Visor Down; VK Vodka Racing; Emotional Rescue, along with numerous private commissions, and now works under his own brand name ‘Set Your Art Racing’. In 2023 he linked up with Olivers Mount Racing to become artist in residence, continuing the appointment for 2024 when, in June at the Barry Sheene Classic event, he will hold the first of a series of pop-up exhibitions featuring a collection of works of the iconic former world champion.
As a motorsport fine artist, Andy works mainly in acrylics, but also creates works using oils, watercolours, and pastels. In recent years he has developed his digital skills, becoming competent working with Photoshop, Procreate and InDesign which he uses when producing commercial works such as the event posters for Olivers Mount Racing.
An additional artistic outlet from Andy is the creation of cartoon illustrations. His favourite commission to date has been the design and production of ‘BikeSport Bob’, a character-based cartoon strip which ran for over 100 episodes in BikeSport News between 2000- 2004. He has also created work for the greetings cards industry, children’s books, and private caricature commissions.
Andy continues to create his high speed, emotion stirring, works, and plans to produce further series of paintings based around the two stroke legends that inspire him so much.