Unique Art Collaboration Between British F4 Driver Rowan Campbell-Pilling and Local Artist Amadora Revealed

Photography by Chris Walker

Last week we were invited to ‘Cars & Art’, an event held in the heart of the city at Leah’s Yard.

Both Rowan and Amadora are Children’s Champions of the Sheffield Children’s Hospital and after meeting each other at the charity’s Christmas light switch on last year, they wanted to find a way to raise money for the incredible work of the hospital.

And on a typical Sheffield Autumn day, where it rained before moments later the sun shone, there they were ready for their event: ‘CARS & ART’.

The commissioned piece by Amadora sitting behind a black cloth, with the anticipation of the grand reveal building.

Speaking to them hours before the start of the event, Rowan smiled as he said: “It’s so awesome.

“To be fair I hadn’t seen anything until today and then I had a sneak peek earlier and oh my it is awesome, it’s so cool.

“It captures that Amadora doesn’t usually do racing art and that comes across really well and brings yet another unique perspective to it and it’s just incredible.”

Amadora reflected: “When I work on portraits it’s usually in a different style, it’s never been a motorsport commission, so I was really excited about that.”

Personally, having only reported on sport, I was fascinated to hear more about the Sheffield artists’ process.

“We got the reference photo on the British Grand Prix Weekend at Silverstone, which marked the first time British F4 had raced at the event,” Amadora explained.

“I’d never been to a race before and when I got there, I was like this is incredible.

“Silverstone was the beginning of July, then I started the painting in the week after, so two months and actual painting hours was around 100 hours, but at the time it doesn’t feel like that.”

After that I was lucky enough to see the painting before the actual reveal, and my jaw dropped.

It is stunning and truly captures the energy of a race weekend in a still image.

The details of Rowan’s helmet and car make it recognisable as him, with the vibrancy of the background and image also celebrating Amadora’s artistic style.

Rowan said: “I can’t describe it in any other way except awesome. That’s going to be the word of the day.”

And to echo his word of the day, it really is awesome.

Amadora said: “I’m really excited for people to see it tonight because usually I share the process, videos of the progress but this time I’ve not shared anything.”

It was clear to me that being able to support the Sheffield Children’s Hospital was the most exciting element for the pair, as Rowan reflected: “To support the charity and do it in a way that’s never been done before is very special.”

Ahead of the event, 42 prints were made to sell in order to raise money for the charity with two of those prints being signed and gifted to the Sheffield Children’s Hospital to auction at their events.

With the crowd now gathering at Leah’s Yard, it was time for the grand reveal and as the cloth was lifted to show the painting a chorus of “Ooooh” and “Wow” rang out through the crowd.

It was a truly beautiful event celebrating what I think is the most special part of the city of Sheffield: the community.

The art community and the motorsport community coming together to support the children of Sheffield and their families.

Having not spoken to Rowan since the beginning of the season, I also caught up with the JHR developments driver as he heads into the final two rounds of his second year competing in British F4.

He said: “It’s been an absolute rollercoaster with the highest highs but also some of the lowest lows.

“It’s a team sport, we win together, and we lose together, and I think this year we have done really well to bounce back and overcome the challenges together as a team and become stronger and develop as well.”

Rowan has impressed with a third-place finish on track at the British Grand Prix, when the big eyes of the F1 world watching on and recently he secured his first win at Knockhill.

Reflecting on that moment, he said: “It was very, very, very special. The amount of work that’s gone into it behind the scenes from myself and the team. It was something that meant an awful lot to me and my family.”

The British F4 season finale will take place at Brands Hatch on the 4^th-5^th October with Sunday’s races being streamed live on ITV4.