Brumos/ Bob Snodgrass Painting

tmsautoart · 07:29 PM

Forgive me in advance. I know this is a long winded story. Don't even know if should be posted here, but it IS sorta 911 related and I just thought more of you would see it as i'm affraid of the OT section.

Just thought I'd post a pic of a watercolor painting I finally completed last night. In the past I had done some artwork for Bob Snodgrass at Brumos Porsche. Not sure how many of you had the opportunity to have met him, but he was very nice to me and really wanted to help give my automotive art career a big boost.
I had done the painting of Brumos' 550 RSK (see avatar at left) and Mr Snodgrass called me to do some more work for him. I was asked too come down and look at some cars. As I wandered around the private museum there at Brumos Porsche (by myself for a while THEN w/ Hurley Haywood!!!!! What a great memory) I was asked by Mr Haywood to pick out a few cars I might be interested in painting. I thought they all deserved to be painted! When Mr. Snodgrass came in he asked what cars interested me and which ones I thought I would want to paint. I was a bit overwhelmed (it wasn't just Brumos Porsches in there....they have a bit of everything) and asked him which one HE really liked. Out of all the cars he had in there he walked me over to a MG TC. He explained to me that it was the car he had learned how to drive in. It was the car he had gone to his first race w/ his father in. I believe that was Watkins Glen. It was also the first car he had raced. He was so proud of that car he made me feel under the fenders and had me look it all over to show me how nice it was. He said it had never been in an accident or damaged in any way. I was sold. I told him I thought it would make a great painting. It's a great car. So he gathered up a couple guys in the race shop and we pushed it outside across the parking lot and on to a small area of grass. I snapped a bunch of photos and told him i'd print them out and we could look at them and decide which shot he liked best. He told me "Your the Artist. I trust you".
After picking out the the right pic I started work on the painting. I was very excited as he had told me the last time we spoke that he could keep me busy with my automotive art. I worked on it off and on for the next few weeks. I actually worked on it fairly leisurely as he said he was in no rush and he knew "how you artists were". I had no deadline. In fact the only thing he requested of me was to make the NY Elmira license plate (his hometown) read "EL 59" in honor of the Brumos 59.
I was about 25% done w/ the painting when I was in a Barnes and Noble book store looking at a Porsche mag. The gentleman next to me was looking at one as well and said "pretty sad news about Bob Snodgrass wasn't it?" I looked at him and had no clue what he meant. He said he had passed away the day before.
I always regret the fact that I didn't finish the car that was so important to him before he passed. I think he would have liked it. He told me it was the most important car in the museum as far as he was concerned. After he passed I just put the painting away unfinished until recently. I decided I would finish it and give it as a gift to the Snodgrass family.
For some reason the pic I took didn't come out that great. It's like it was taken w/ a fisheye lens or something. Even the straight lines at the edge of the painting were curved....wierd. I'll take some better pics when it gets matted and framed.
Here it is ....

Zeke · 07-28-2009, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmsautoart

Even the straight lines at the edge of the painting were curved....wierd. I'll take some better pics when it gets matted and framed.
Here it is ....

And that is why it is art. Beautiful, as is your post.

MBruns · 07-28-2009, 04:56 PM

Terry, that is very kind, I have known Bob since the late 80's and raced against him in HSR for years, He was very dedicated to the sport and he will be missed tremendously. I am glad to see you have finished this and please follow thru with this gift to the Brumos family.

Regards, Mike Bruns

boba · 07-28-2009, 05:09 PM

That is a wonderful piece. Thank you for sharing your story and art. Bob was a very special person to all who had the pleasure to know him and a great part of the Porsche story.

We (R Gruppe) paid tribute to Bob and his family at Rennsport Reunion III and I was proud to be part of putting that together. I was especially moved by the way his wife responded to Bob being remembered by so many.

From RRIII

FastCarFan · FastCarFan's Garage

Terry,

That is a fantastic painting! I have always loved TCs. Many say the MG TC was the car that started the sports car enthusiasm in the U.S. GIs brought them back after the war. It obviously had a key role in Bob Snodgrass's automotive passion.

I remember reading about Bob's TC that he & his dad had gone to the races at Watkins Glen in. The Glen is not far from Elmira.

I wish I had known Bob, as I have read several impressive tributes to him. I hope to be able to tour the Brumos museum some day. I enjoyed seeing a lot of the Brumos cars at Rennsport Reunion III.

Thanks for sharing your art & the story.

Do you have a Website where you sell your artwork? I love it. Unfortunately I have no empty wall-space in my library -- it is all filled with auto art (prints). But someday I hope to switch out a piece or two. My prints include work by Nicholas Watts, Bill Neale & Randy Owens.

Thanks again. I LOVE the TC piece!

kycarguy 935 · 07-28-2009, 06:38 PM

Thanks for sharing the story with us. Back in the late 90's and early 2000's I exchanged emails with Bob and he was a very nice gentleman to speak with and a very special person indeed.

I like the painting and think you did a fantastic job. Keep up the good work.

tmsautoart · 07-28-2009, 08:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MBruns

Terry, that is very kind, I have known Bob since the late 80's and raced against him in HSR for years, He was very dedicated to the sport and he will be missed tremendously. I am glad to see you have finished this and please follow thru with this gift to the Brumos family.

Regards, Mike Bruns

I most certainly will finish through with giving the painting to them. I'll get it matted and framed this week and get it presentable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by boba

That is a wonderful piece. Thank you for sharing your story and art. Bob was a very special person to all who had the pleasure to know him and a great part of the Porsche story.

We (R Gruppe) paid tribute to Bob and his family at Rennsport Reunion III and I was proud to be part of putting that together. I was especially moved by the way his wife responded to Bob being remembered by so many.

From RRIII

Boba. I loved the stickers you guys ran on your cars for RR III. Very classy move.
I had met him a few times throughout the years. One being around 1991 or so. I was right out of high school and I went to pick up some parts for a friend of mine, pulling up to Brumos in an SCCA Omni GLH turbo w/ cage and revolution wheels etc. and he said "hey...That's a nice looking GLH". For a 19 year old that felt pretty good. I thought "This guy gets "it"". Most car people didn't even know what in the heck that car was. Bob was a car guy, not just a Porsche guy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FastCarFan

Terry,

That is a fantastic painting! I have always loved TCs. Many say the MG TC was the car that started the sports car enthusiasm in the U.S. GIs brought them back after the war. It obviously had a key role in Bob Snodgrass's automotive passion.

I remember reading about Bob's TC that he & his dad had gone to the races at Watkins Glen in. The Glen is not far from Elmira.

I wish I had known Bob, as I have read several impressive tributes to him. I hope to be able to tour the Brumos museum some day. I enjoyed seeing a lot of the Brumos cars at Rennsport Reunion III.

Thanks for sharing your art & the story.

Do you have a Website where you sell your artwork? I love it. Unfortunately I have no empty wall-space in my library -- it is all filled with auto art (prints). But someday I hope to switch out a piece or two. My prints include work by Nicholas Watts, Bill Neale & Randy Owens.

Thanks again. I LOVE the TC piece!

Thank you and thanks to everybody for the kind words. It really does mean a lot to me.
You have good taste in automotive artists I might add. Actually I think all three you mentioned were at the Amelia Island Concour D'Elegance. All AFAS members too. I stopped to talk to each and gave them a business card. It was recommended to me that I e-mail/submit some of my work to the AFAS to review which I may do in the future. I do have a website, but it's not really up and running yet. It's really just a front page w/ 2 pics on it saying "it's coming soon". If you want to see it it's terrystuder.com. I'll get it up and running soon.

tmsautoart · 07-28-2009, 08:20 PM

some of you have probably already seen this one. It's been posted here before, but it goes along w/ the story. It's a Maserati birdcage that Bob had me paint for a gift to Dan Davis (Winn Dixie/ Brumos).

tmsautoart · 07-28-2009, 08:33 PM

bottom right of the windshield:

tmsautoart · 07-29-2009, 12:59 PM

Picked up my mats and frame this afternoon. Hopefully i'll get it framed tonight and get some pics up so all of you can see the finished piece.

carr914 · 07-30-2009, 06:27 AM

I had the pleasure of growing up in Elmira and knowing Bob Snodgrass for a long time. Everytime I went up to Jacksonville, we would talk about the old days in Elmira (yes less than a 1/2 hour from Watkins Glen). When we went into the Museum, The MG was his favorite car and he would talk about at great lengths.

Bob was a Great man and was always true to being a regular guy. I miss his friendship.

Very nice painting. I tried to dig out a picture of the MG, but couldn't find one quickly, but it's front wheel can be seen in this picture

T.C.

Fleming · 07-30-2009, 07:29 AM

Thanks to the efforts of BobA (for the decal stickers) some of us still carry this tribute to Bob Snodgrass. He was a good guy.

tmsautoart · 07-30-2009, 07:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carr914

I had the pleasure of growing up in Elmira and knowing Bob Snodgrass for a long time. Everytime I went up to Jacksonville, we would talk about the old days in Elmira (yes less than a 1/2 hour from Watkins Glen). When we went into the Museum, The MG was his favorite car and he would talk about at great lengths.

Bob was a Great man and was always true to being a regular guy. I miss his friendship.

Very nice painting. I tried to dig out a picture of the MG, but couldn't find one quickly, but it's front wheel can be seen in this picture

T.C.

Thanks for the compliment! Ah...secret spy shots of the museum. I did snap of a couple quick pics while I was in there by myself, although I had the feeling that I wasn't supposed to. Yes, the MG was in that same exact spot the day we pulled it out to be photographed.

tmsautoart · 07-30-2009, 04:58 PM

OK...well it's all framed and ready to go. sorry about the poor quality pic, but you get the idea. I'm going to show it to a few people first and then i'll make some arrangements w/ Brumos or whomever to get this to the Snodgrass family. Thanks for all the nice posts everybody.

kycarguy 935 · 07-30-2009, 06:31 PM

It came out very nice. I am sure they will be very happy with it.

tb912 · 07-30-2009, 06:59 PM

that painting and the story are unbelievable.
actually a bit discouraging for a young striving artist.

incredible work. Wow.

carr914 · 07-30-2009, 07:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmsautoart

Thanks for the compliment! Ah...secret spy shots of the museum. I did snap of a couple quick pics while I was in there by myself, although I had the feeling that I wasn't supposed to. Yes, the MG was in that same exact spot the day we pulled it out to be photographed.

Terry, it came out beautiful framed, I'm sure that the family will love it and I know Bob would have too.

Yes , mine pic is a spy shot. I was in the museum with Bob and I asked if I could take some shots of the cars Porsche had brought over for RennSport II (the Museum was crowded with them as was the Race Shop). Bob said that he didn't allow pictures, he winked, smiled, and turned and walked to the Race Shop for a few minutes.

The last time I saw him alive, I arrived at the dealership later than I planned so I missed lunch. So he had taken mechanics from the Mercedes dealership out to eat. Afterword we just hung around the Race Shop, I think that was where he felt most comfortable. He was weak, but he was never going to give in to his health. Later on the phone he said was feeling better. I think it was a week later he was gone.

I have this flag from Watkins Glen hanging over my tool box. It gives me a smile when I remember my friend.

T.C. Davis

tmsautoart · 07-31-2009, 10:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by carr914

Terry, it came out beautiful framed, I'm sure that the family will love it and I know Bob would have too.

Yes , mine pic is a spy shot. I was in the museum with Bob and I asked if I could take some shots of the cars Porsche had brought over for RennSport II (the Museum was crowded with them as was the Race Shop). Bob said that he didn't allow pictures, he winked, smiled, and turned and walked to the Race Shop for a few minutes.

The last time I saw him alive, I arrived at the dealership later than I planned so I missed lunch. So he had taken mechanics from the Mercedes dealership out to eat. Afterword we just hung around the Race Shop, I think that was where he felt most comfortable. He was weak, but he was never going to give in to his health. Later on the phone he said was feeling better. I think it was a week later he was gone.

I have this flag from Watkins Glen hanging over my tool box. It gives me a smile when I remember my friend.

T.C. Davis

That flag is great! I remember being there when he took delivery of a cool red fiat Abarth. I asked if I could take some pics of it there in the race shop thinking he would say no...and he said yes! I got some pretty neat pics. Unfortunately they are on a hard drive that has gone south. I saved the hard drive because of all the unique pics I have on it. Actually the original pics from photographing the MG are on there as well....along w/ the Maserati from above and my spy shots. I keep thinking one day i'll take it to someone that can recover my pictures.

Racerbvd · Racerbvd's Garage

I sent this link to Harris Snodgrass (Bob's son) that should get these to where they belong.. Would have called him, but when my phone DNFed, I lost ALL of my contacts

tmsautoart · 08-01-2009, 11:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Racerbvd

I sent this link to Harris Snodgrass (Bob's son) that should get these to where they belong.. Would have called him, but when my phone DNFed, I lost ALL of my contacts

Thanks Byron. I spoke w/ Mr Davis a while ago and he had told me at the time to just give him a call when I finished it and he would connect me. I was just going to show it to a few people before I handed it off. Louis, Bill Warner, Brumos and maybe a couple others. If you want you can give Harris my cell number.