The Art of Wallace A. Wyss

FERRARI ENGINE PORTRAITS

Wallace Wyss sent us this image of a new series of paintings he is doing, all inspired by Ferrari’s V-12 engine. The first is a 250GTO engine as seen here. The mixed media includes acrylic oil, regular oil, waxed watercolor crayons and pen and ink. Wyss then added handwritten pen notations about the 3-liter 250GTO engine for those not steeped in Ferrari history. “I plan to do other Ferrari engines as well,” Wyss reports, “but chose the GTO engine first because that’s the engine that first piqued my interest in Ferrari.” For those interested , 12” x 18” prints on watercolour paper are available in a signed and numbered limited edition. You can reach the artist at photojournalistpro@hotmail.com

NEW OFFERING: Fine art by Wallace Wyss now offered in collectible affordable 12? x 18? size (including white borders) on watercolour paper, each signed by the artist and numbered in a limited edition. For a list of artwork available contact order@albaco.net, the renouned Ferrari memorabilia dealer, Alex Balestrieri, at 630-926 5111 (Chicago time).

Note: 12″ x 18″ reproductions on watercolour paper of these works can be ordered from renouned Ferrari memorabilia dealer, Alex Balestrieri, at 630-926 5111 (Chicago time).

WHY THE ALFA STRADALE?

“I saw Alfa Stradales for years in pictures before I ever laid my eyes on one in person. I was not disappointed when I finally got to put my hands on one (I can’t help running my hands over a well shaped car. I’d do that with women too, but I’d get arrested…). It is, to me, a combination of inspirations–the brutality of the Ford GT40 and the sensuousness of the best Ferraris of the Sixties. I wish it had a larger engine, maybe it could have done more. I prefer this style, the street car, to the race cars. I shot the reference shot at one of the Monterey events and decided to paint an oil of it later with only the car so the viewer can appreciate the car itself, and not be distracted by any background.”

WHY THE LEMANS DINO?
“I always liked the lines of the Dino, and if I had any brains I should’ve bought a first generation 206GT Dino because of the aluminum bodywork rather than lusted after the more common steel-bodied 246GTS just because it was an open car. 246GTS were steel bodied but if this car is SN 2678 which finished 17th at LeMans, the works prepared car had an alloy body according to the website QV500.com.”

WHY THE MYSTERY?
“The car is a result of a little deal that Shelby cooked up around ‘58, cadging three Corvette chassis out of Ed Cole at Chevrolet and sending them to be bodied by Scaglietti. Chevy then cut him off from any more chassis so the project died a’bornin’. The artist says he was fooled by the non-Corvette grille, which the other two of the trio have.”

WHY THE BOXER?
“I always liked the LM because I saw it at LeMans the one and only race I attended. Too bad it didn’t have what it took to win the race overall. This painting started out kind of like Ken Dallison but still has a more ‘painterly’ look. I haven’t decided whether outlining people & cars in pen is the way to go. Anyway I chose to do it because with the door open, and driver buckling up, it has some drama.”

WHY THE COBRA?

“I always liked this black and white old Ford PR shot I have, but I didn’ think at first I could paint the scene in color because, back when I was using watercolors, I couldn’t get the opacity. But then I switched to acrylics and found that at last coud do solid colors and I think I captured it. Gurney still looks very determined–I have pictures of him laughing but never behind the wheel. He took his driving very seriously. The car finished the race but the Roman roads pounded the beejeesuz out of it.”

All works can be ordered directly from the artist: photojournalistpro@hotmail.com.

Note: 12″ x 18″ reproductions on watercolour paper of these works can be ordered from renouned Ferrari memorabilia dealer, Alex Balestrieri, at 630-926 5111 (CST).

WHY THE 206S?
“I always admired the 206S cars, I thought they were a great distillation of the Ferrari P3/4 styling without the exaggerated effects. I wish the street 206 and 246 Dinos could have featured more of the styling. I saw these two at the Palm Springs races that used to be promoted by Rick Cole and Marty Yocoobian. Palm Springs was a great place to have racing once again (it had racing in the Fifties) , but the problem is once the sun goes behind that 8,000 ft. mountain, it’s “who turned out the lights?” I shot this with my trusty Nikon F3 Photomic head film camera with a 50 mm lens, then made a watercolor.”

WHY THE 250GTO?
I always wanted to shoot a good running shot of a car but since my motor drive rusted from dis-use I can only get 3 shots off by manually clicking the shutter and advancing the film by the time the car goes by and sometimes I don’t even capture the whole car. However, I am still happy with the center section of the 250GTO I shot at Monterey and subsequently made a painting of it. I have only a hint of the background as the car is the complete focus of my attention. I have been a 250GTO fan ever since Chuck Queener took me for a ride in one he borrowed to drive around town back in 1970 while we were both at Motor Trend. I also remember when a Doctor in Pasadena had one that he was going to make the most expensive one in the world–at $25,000!”

You’ve heard the Ferrari story, here’s the view from the other side….

Ferraristi have much to be proud of in GP and sports car racing but there was one brief golden moment in the sixties when Fords ruled in sports car racing, winning LeMans four times in a row. This book tells how the GT40 was conceived, built, raced and how it beat Ferrari at LeMans. Then, fast forward forty years ahead to the modern era where a small coterie of ultra-enthusiasts at Ford created a modern re-creation of the Ford GT , this time to joust with Ferrari in the supercar marketplace.

Ford has abandoned the exotic car market now, but this book tells how the 2005 Ford GTs were conceived, engineered, designed, and marketed so that they created a car that was every bit as competitive in features as the Modena 360-their “target” car. The book is hardbound, 224 pages, with 32 pages of colour and over 100 black & white illustrations. Among the bonuses are a three page essay by Dan Gurney on racing at LeMans, and three page bio of Carroll Shelby. It’s a limited edition, and not distributed by any distributor, even the rare book dealers. We have a limited supply for $100. Contact Wally at photojournalistpro@hotmail.com