My foray into owning an impractical car has been an expensive yet surprisingly fun experience.  My racing green Lotus Elise is a glorified street legal go-cart.  It’s so much fun to drive!

With a Lotus, the journey has become more important than the destination.  Jenny, my co-pilot and navigator in life and on the road, always finds the best curvy two lanes to drive on.  Our date nights are often precluded by great drives with the top down, feeling the rush of the wind and the roar of the engine, as we hug the deserted country roads.  Long gone are trips on the semi clustered interstates, littered with tolls and asshole drivers.

I take pride in owing this little exotic, it’s surely no Ferrari or Porsche but it’s my piece of fiberglass, aluminum and plastic, that won’t be traded sold or neglected.  I’ve never owned a car like it and I probably won’t again, so it gets pampered.  He’s my garage king.  :-]

Yes my car is a guy, named after the emerald ring Barahir in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth.

I can’t count how many times I’ve had to open my car door.   Well my little Lotus has opened a few doors for me.  I’ve met a plethora of good people whom I’d never have crossed paths with in life.  Guys like Moto44, SwingLo, Gunpilot and !Me from the Lotus Talk forum.  Then there are the fine young chaps and ladies from the Illinois Flat Land British Car Club, and the guys who keep these cars running and looking great like T.J. from the FVMC, Chuck over at C.A.R.S. and even the ‘Junkman‘, who knows more about detailing a car than I do about watercolor painting, which reminds me.

It just so happens that my home town Bloomington IL,  is hosting the Champagne British Car Festival (May 31-June 2) and an art show themed around British cars!  Come June, while I’m showing off my paintings inside the historic David Davis Mansion, my Lotus will be parked out on the lawn, soaking up some sun and giving others the opportunity to see these rare vehicles.

I really have come to appreciate the Lotus Talk community.  The wealth of knowledge there about Lotus cars is unsurpassed.  Everyone shares and seems willing to exchange ideas, answer questions and talk about their car experiences.  So after mingling around for about a year usually asking way more noob questions than I could ever answer, I reached out and asked if anyone was willing to submit their car photos for me to use as reference for painting some new original art.  I was overwhelmed with hundreds of photos, more than I could ever paint in a lifetime.  All of the guys were excited about the prospect of a professional artist painting their ride. The best thing is, for the first time on that forum, I’m an expert at something.

I hope I don’t let them down…

The photos I have been given to use are gorgeous, and the pieces I chose play right into my strengths as a painter.  Here is a sneak peak…