MotorsReview: Lawrence Watts: the 'Unknown' ArtistThe artists who designed car - and engine - concepts have, says Bob Montgomery, been an ignored group. A new book goes some way to rectifying this for one artist, Lawrie Watts
Bill Bennett, Vic Berris, Lawrie Watts - hardly names that trip off the tongue as well-known automotive artists. Yet these three leading exponents of what has become known rather inadequately as the 'Cutaway' drawing are artists of the highest caliber working in a specialist field which is highly demanding and rarely acknowledged. A new book by Dublin-born David Dixon, called Watts My Line? aims to put that right; at least in the case of Lawrie Watts, perhaps the greatest of this small band of artists.
Lawrence Watts was born in 1927 and showed little promise, by his own admission, at anything other than art while at school. However, his prowess in painting and drawing clearly marked him out as an exceptional talent.
At the age of 14 he found his first job in the bodyshop of Armstrong-Siddeley cars making wooden parts for the Whitley bomber, and nightly braving the Blitz to attend evening classes at Coventry Technical College.
In 1949, he joined the Coventry office of Associated Illiffe Press as Editorial Artist. Illiffe were at that time the largest publisher of technical periodicals in the UK and Lawrie "was in heaven!"
Soon, Lawrie's finely detailed cutaway drawings were appearing in the company's publications. Reflecting his strong interest in motorcycles, many of these early published drawings are of motorcycles and their engines.
His friendship with sidecar World Champion Eric Oliver led to him designing a streamlined sidecar outfit. This was later developed further and involved changing the role of the sidecar passenger thus enabling better weight distribution of the heavier components such as the fuel tank. The result was sensational and led to Oliver winning four successive sidecar championships.
Now working from freelance commissions, Lawrie entered his most productive period, producing drawings directly for manufacturers as well as magazines.
Cars, trucks, engines of all sorts, land speed record cars, aircraft and aero engines, hovercraft and farm machinery have all benefited from Lawrie's expertise.
The 'devil is in the detail' accurately reflects a key element of Lawrie's work for it is often only when examining the fine detail of his drawings that one begins to appreciate the amount of work he puts in to ensure its accuracy.
A fine example is his drawing of the mighty Avon 200 Series jet engine which powered the Land Speed Record car 'Thrust 1'. So that the perspective would be exactly right, each blade within the engine is drawn individually - a job which he admits nearly drove him "round the twist."
A glider pilot of long-standing, Lawrie is as well-known for his art in the field of aviation as he is in the world of motoring and much of this book is taken up with his flying experiences from early days aeromodelling to qualifying as an airframe inspector. Also particularly interesting is the account of his involvement with the restoration of the Hawk - a replica of the glider built by the great aviation pioneer, Percy Pilcher.
I first encountered Lawrie Watts' cutaway drawings in the Eagle comic as a schoolboy, and down the years have been fascinated by this form of art. It's particularly pleasing to see his genius acknowledged in this fine and well-illustrated book.
Watts My Line? by David Dixon is published by Redline Books. ISBN 0-9544357-7-X. For sales in Ireland contact dixonirene@hotmail.com