THE ARTIST - "BRAKESY"
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Brakesy, real name Andy Atkinson, has been drawing and painting motorbikes, particularly racing motorbikes, since he was a schoolboy. Born in Stockton on Tees in Northeast England in 1963, Andy, at the age of 13, watched a TV documentary about Barry Sheene and his infamous Daytona crash, and was immediately entranced by the speed, sound, smell, colour and sheer adrenaline rush of this high-octane sport. Already excelling in Art at school (he took his O level a year early and passed with an A grade), he subsequently channeled his artistic endeavors into motorbike racing and has been doing so ever since.
After attaining A grade passes 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), while still working as an artist on a freelance basis, and so until recently 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 and 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.
Andys two interests, Art and motorbike racing, developed into a passion, and then to an obsession, which resulted in him pursuing a racing career himself from 1984-93. Racing at club and then National championship level provided him with the experience and senses overload that he felt desperate to incorporate into his artwork.
Trying to invoke a sense of synesthesia and emotion within his works, Andy is wanting 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 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.
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 and childrens books, as well as private caricature commissions.
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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.