It’s probably like stage fright.”Įvery live painting of his is unique. “Once I feel like I can see all the parts and pieces, even though they’re just blobs of color, then I just get to have fun. “The moment I start until just a couple minutes in, it’s a little scary,” Patterson says. He grabs a wide brush and paints huge streaks of color across the canvas, serving as the background’s foundation. Patterson blocks out the pandemonium, focusing only on his 60-by-42-inch canvas and 10-color palette. A cactus - like the recognizable neon green one at Phoenix’s start-finish line - is usually prominently featured. It sometimes takes him several sketches to solidify his depiction of the race and how the winner finished first, though he doesn’t always paint the finish. With a pencil and sketchbook, he’s glued to the race, outlining different ideas or storylines he wants to include. It has to if he wants to capture the drama of a NASCAR race, plus the desert landscape in the background, in such a short period of time. It stays raw and keeps this energy, and I don’t have time to go in and screw it up.”Īlthough his hand-designed wooden easel is usually parked in Phoenix’s Victory Lane - or near the adjacent stage if it’s the title race - his work begins long before the checkered flag. “And once I figured out that I could do that fast - and because I did it fast - the thing has energy in it. “It’s all about trying to express the emotion and the speed,” 69-year-old Patterson says. A live painter, most of his work is created on the spot, and in an hour - sometimes a little more, sometimes less - his blank canvas is transformed into a fantastic array of colors evoking tremendous speed.Įvery brush stroke counts. With team members, sponsors, reporters and fans flooding the area waiting for the winner to pull his car center stage, Patterson is frantically painting a vibrant masterpiece celebrating the win all in a matter of minutes after Phoenix’s two Cup Series events each season, including Sunday’s championship race. You may not recognize his name or face, but he’s a staple for NASCAR races at the desert track, leaving in Victory Lane a rainbow of paint splotches that didn’t quite make it from his brush to his canvas depicting the latest winning driver and car. As NASCAR’s top drivers roar toward the finish line at Phoenix Raceway with the checkered flag in sight, Bill Patterson is in Victory Lane hard at work.
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