by Wallace Wyss –
I didn’t become an artist until 2009, but even decades earlier had artistic favorites, among them the British born artist Ken Dallison. I first ran across him in magazines like Car & Driver and admired his skill with the fine point pen. I didn’t think I would get to meet him in person but one day when I was writing ads for the Corvette at Chevrolet’s ad agency in Detroit, there he was, ready to do some drawings for the Corvette.
Ironically the Corvette body was so smooth and featureless that there wasn’t much to draw so those aren’t my favorites among his work. I am more inclined to like his British sports cars, or prewar classics or any drawings showing the life style of the car owners.
This is a sad notice that I just discovered Ken had passed away back on May 24, 2024. Normally I would see him at the Artist’s tent at the Pebble Beach Concours each year but since they ended hosting that tent some years ago, I lost track of the best car artists in the U.S.and how they are all doing.
He knew just when to let the background go to white.
Ken was born in Hounslow England in 1933, and lived to the ripe age of 91. He grew up under meager circumstances but things changed when at the age of 14, with a drawing entered in a contest, he won a scholarship to Twickenham College.
Then he moved to New York City where he illustrated stories for Sports Illustrated, Car and Driver and National Geographic. He won many drawing awards from artist’s Associations. After emigrating to Toronto, he eventually became an art teacher at the Ontario College of Art and Design, where he worked for 25 years.
He did capture Detroit cars well.
His work is also on the walls of many car museums and private museums worldwide. It can be found for sale at various websites featuring automotive art.
I would say the key thing about appreciating his art is the empty spaces, he knew just when to stop drawing the car and have empty space so the shape of the car could be appreciated and not lost in the background.
At an event he liked to capture the setting.
He also was a great lover of backgrounds that reflected on the history of the car, such as old British buildings. And I like where, when he drew people with the cars, he captured the type of enthusiast us car lovers would like to be (flat cap, stringback driving gloves, etc…).
He left behind a wife, Gwynneth, several children and grandchildren, and I regret now I never visited him in Toronto just a few hundred miles from Detroit so I could see how an artist lives.
1929 Duesenberg ModelJ
There are several books containing Dallison’s drawings, and I think he should be the model for car illustrators everywhere. I show here just a few of his drawings that struck me.
Thank you Ken, for all you did for recognizing cars as a worthy subject for your art.
Let us know what you think in the Comments.
THE AUTHOR: Wallace Wyss, the author of 18 car histories.
And of course there was his work for Pebble Beach.
Remember that October 1964 Car and Driver piece by Leo Levine and illustrated so poignantly by Ken Dallison about the 300 SL Gullwing? Those wonderful images and the name Ken Dallison were seared into my memory as an 18 year old. They still move me today. You can find the article on the internet.