Land Rover Series III (AHD 930Y)
This artwork celebrates the 'luxury' Land Rover Series III County Station Wagon as both a utilitarian vehicle and an enduring cultural icon. The vehicle’s unmistakable Series III County Station Wagon identity with the characteristic safari roof with its distinctive vents, becomes the framework through which its history is expressed.
The digital watercolour technique allows the vehicle’s weathered surface, scuffs, and faded paint to tell their own story. The warm brown bodywork and limestone roof stand in gentle contrast to the cool, expressive washes surrounding it. A palette of soft ultramarine, Prussian blue, and muted indigo washes flows into the paper, creating a sense of atmosphere and grounding the Land Rover within a field of textured shadow. The splattered edges and drips — in tones of burnt umber, sienna, and deep graphite-blue — echo oil stains, muddy tracks, and years of practical use.
The intention is not to idealise the vehicle, but to honour its working life. The Series III represents an era shaped by reliability and straightforward engineering; these forms are celebrated through brush textures that pick out the crisp edges of the wings and the iconic front end that has become so familiar on farms, in forests, and across remote landscapes.
By placing the vehicle against a clean, white background, the artwork isolates the Land Rover as an object of design rather than simply a tool — giving it the presence of a portrait sitter. The washes lift it away from pure realism and into a space where memory, affection, and visual storytelling overlap.
Working in collaboration with Motodrome, whose passion for eclectic classic vehicles anchors each image in authenticity, this series transforms practical machines into contemporary icons of resilience, character, and British engineering heritage.
