Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Think of art and you think of delicate brush stokes, fine paintings – and radio control cars. Well Ian Cook from Solihull does. I just had to ask him where he got the idea of painting with cars and what it's all about.

"I'm a Popbang artist," said Ian. "I create an explosion of colour using whatever media I feel like at the time – whether it's when I'm sculpting, painting, print making or whatever I'm doing.

Ian first got interested in using cars in art after visiting Latvia. His uncle worked for Rover, BWM and then Ford, so seeing these cars abroad reminded him of home.

"When I returned I decided to do some work with toy cars and made a sculpture using hundreds of them. It was really just playing around – cars, boys toys and all that."

Then his girlfriend bought him a radio control car. Little did she know he would take it into his studio for his next project.

A couple of weeks ago Ian worked at the Wulfrun shopping centre. They wanted art work to decorate vacant units with.

Ian laid out his tools – his paint, around 10 radio control cars, and his canvass. Then began to work.

He put the paint on his canvass and ran the radio control car over it.

"As I was creating the artwork I realised people were watching me. It was half term so there were a lot of kids about. The parents were explaining what was going on and the kids got really excited about it.

"Instead of me just creating the work, there was a real interaction – it became almost a performance piece. Even though I'm not a performer, I became one.

"The press came down and one or two people said they were interested in buying some of my work."

But what about those who don't call this art?

"Art can be taken too seriously. If it's a piece of work that is very visual and done in an interesting way then I think that's brilliant.

"If my work appeals to people who don't go to galleries but can see it in a shopping centre, that's great."

Because it is Children in Need on Friday Ian decided to create a Popbang Pudsey.

His creation of Pudsey looked great. So did he practice his manoeuvres?

"No, my creation of Pudsey this morning was completely untested. I just wanted to go straight into it. I was a bit nervous because I know how long my other works took – but I had everything with me ready and I think Pudsey worked out really well."

Popbang Pudsey is being displayed on the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ WM studio wall until Children in Need Night – and hopefully it will appear as a background for the Children in Need programme when they come to the regions.