Bristol UK – 16th January 2024
- Amalgam is proud to be an Official Licenced Partner of Aston Martin, capturing iconic models from the marque in both fine model and art print format.
- Artist Alan Thornton works within the meticulous technical discipline of print making - applied by Andy Warhol and other notable Pop Artists of the 1950s and 60s - with his work capturing the attention and admiration of the lead designers at Aston Martin.
- One-off prints will be an important part of the collection as it develops, often incorporating 24 carat gold foil and other precious metals.
- Even bigger format works are available in the glamorous dye transfer medium, printed onto finely brushed aluminium up to 2.4 metres wide (96 inches).
- Works are available in Limited Editions in formats from 1 metre wide (39 inches), up to 1.5 metres wide (59 inches) and can be purchased directly from Amalgam Collection.
High resolution images and video can be found here >
Famous for making the most perfect large scale model cars in the world, Amalgam Collection has now teamed with artist Alan Thornton to capture some of Aston Martin’s most iconic models in precise, beautiful and deeply crafted prints. The new collection leads with two extraordinary cars, the Aston Martin Valkyrie and DB5.
At the disposal of owners of the most extreme and valuable Aston Martins, who may wish to commission unique collections of works distilling the beauty of their car into extraordinary pieces of art, Alan Thornton undertakes a very small number of commissions each year.
Format, size, media, the number of viewpoints to be captured and the print quantity of each, are all open for discussion. Each project is defined and quoted on an individual basis and Alan’s deep experience with portrait photography opens the door to the creation of large format prints capturing both car and driver together, a format with exciting potential.
Sandy Copeman, founder of Amalgam, on the artworks of Alan Thornton:
“Amalgam’s core mission has always been to capture iconic cars in supremely detailed large-scale models. When I met with Alan Thornton in 2020 it became clear to me very quickly that he was on a parallel mission to fully comprehend and capture iconic car designs and render them into perfectly worked 2D artworks. As with Amalgam’s models, Alan’s work exudes a passionate attention to the finest details, melded together to deliver a deep and powerful image of the subject car. Alan’s artistic comprehension of the car designer’s intentions, combined with his extreme technical virtuosity and a passion for the automotive subjects, results in very special artworks of great intensity and beauty.”
Virtuosity
“It’s a truism that the making of powerfully engaging art is founded on long, intense practice to develop effortless technique, enabling creativity to take flight.”
Photography
“Skilled technique and creativity are essential to every stage of Alan’s art. The first chapter of his creative process takes the real car into the studio, shooting it in high resolution, and taking infinite care with the lighting and angles. The outcome is a set of unique photographs of the car, specifically created to meet the technical and artistic disciplines of the next chapter in the story.”
Artistry
“The second stage of Alan’s process involves digitally working the image, breaking down the photographic image mechanically into numerous elements and complex dot patterns, that when printed will create the illusion of a full tonal range. Indeed, Alan’s masterful use of the demanding process he has created for himself, takes the artwork beyond photographic realism to produce hyper-real levels of intensity, depth and vibrancy in the final printed image.”
Craftsmanship
“The third and final stage is the printing of unique one-off prints and limited editions employing the traditional hand screen printing process or dye sublimation. In both cases rather than use a four-colour print process, the colours are defined and mixed to represent each element of the car’s paint and material finishes. The resulting print has colours of great purity and intensity. For the traditional screen prints the process demands much careful mixing of the inks and the hand pulling of each colour to manage the spread of the dots onto the paper and achieve the desired outcome.”
“Presenting these works in person to the lead designers at Aston Martin elicited an immediate and tremendously excited response, leading to a swift engagement and access to the most important classic and current cars representing Aston Martin’s design DNA.”
The Amalgam Collection and Alan Thornton Collection of Fine Art Editions and Dye Transfer Prints can be found at www.amalgamcollection.com.
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High resolution images and video can be found here >
Video can also be found for embedding on YouTube here >
EDITORS' NOTES:
MEDIA CONTACTS
PR & Media Enquiries: tom.gibsoncommunications@gmail.com, T: (201) 476-0322, Mobile: (201) 264-3646
PR & Media Enquiries: pressandmedia@amalgam.com
Director of Brand and Business Development: Sandy Copeman sandy.copeman@amalgam.com
Business and Sales Enquiries: enquiries@amalgam.com
About Amalgam Collection:
Amalgam’s team of crafts-people are recognised worldwide as makers of the finest hand-made large-scale models. Their work is unique in its attention to detail, with a focus on creating models that truly capture the style and spirit of each car. They have dedicated all their skill and passion to achieving a level of excellence that raises the impact and value of each finished piece far above anything previously created.
For cars they have already modelled at 1:8 in a limited edition, the team at Amalgam offers a tailormade service, customising a model to perfectly match the specification of an owner’s real car. For owners of unique very high value cars, Amalgam Collection offers even bigger 1:5 or 1:4 ‘one-off’ model builds from their UK workshops in Bristol, England. The team will digitally scan the car wherever it is in the world and take up to a thousand pictures of every detail, allowing them to perfectly and accurately replicate everything at scale. Given the significant number of hours required to develop a unique model, the costs are high, so the model is built at a very large scale to maximise the impact and detail, and to deliver the ultimate finished piece.
Amalgam Collection’s design, management and development heart is in England, with extraordinarily skilled and dedicated teams producing the bigger editions in Hungary and China. They are a multinational, multicultural team of craftsmen and women, dedicated to creating the world’s most precise, beautiful and exclusive models. Inspired by the F1 teams and iconic luxury car marques of England and Italy that they serve and partner with, they take huge pride in their mission to perfectly capture the designs, and honour the designers, drivers and creators of the automotive art they love.
ABOUT ASTON MARTIN LAGONDA:
Aston Martin’s vision is to be the world’s most desirable, ultra-luxury British brand, creating the most exquisitely addictive performance cars.
Founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford, Aston Martin is acknowledged as an iconic global brand synonymous with style, luxury, performance, and exclusivity. Aston Martin fuses the latest technology, time honoured craftsmanship and beautiful styling to produce a range of critically acclaimed luxury models including the Vantage, DB12, DBS, DBX and its first hypercar, the Aston Martin Valkyrie.
Based in Gaydon, England, Aston Martin Lagonda designs, creates and exports cars which are sold in 56 countries around the world. Its sports cars are manufactured in Gaydon with its luxury DBX SUV range proudly manufactured in St Athan, Wales.
Lagonda was founded in 1899 and Aston Martin in 1913. The two brands came together in 1947 when both were purchased by the late Sir David Brown, and the company is now listed on the London Stock Exchange as Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings plc.
2020 saw Lawrence Stroll become the company’s Executive Chairman, alongside significant new investment, a move that led to Aston Martin’s return to the pinnacle of motorsport with the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant Formula One™ Team and commenced new era for the iconic British marque.
HOW AMALGAM MODELS ARE CREATED
- The patterns are created using original CAD from the manufacturer, or extraordinarily accurate digital scans and hundreds of photographs of an original classic car.
- The patterns are used to create silicon rubber moulds that capture every detail.
- Prototyping resin is used to cast the parts from the silicon moulds. Around 20 to 30 parts can be cast from each mould and then a new one must be made.
- Each model is built from thousands of parts: castings, photo-etchings and CNC machined metal components.
- Genuine car paints and manufacturer or archive colour references are used to spray the bodywork.
- It takes between 2,500 and 4,500 hours to develop the tooling for each model.
- It takes between 250 and 450 hours to cast, fit, fettle, paint and build each model.
Every Amalgam Fine Model Car is made entirely by hand from thousands of parts. Detailed original CAD data is supplied by the car's manufacturer or the race team of the car to be modelled. The process of developing each model and creating the master patterns takes between 2,500 and 4,500 hours of skilled work depending on the complexity of the car, with classic cars taking the longest.
In the case of the classic cars an extremely accurate digital scan is made of the car, and hundreds of photographs of all the details of a carefully selected original car are taken, to ensure complete accuracy and adherence to the authentic finishes and materials. Many parts of the model are machined from metal with the major components hand cast from prototyping resin. Each model is individually assembled by a small team of highly skilled model-makers. In total the time taken to machine, cast, hand fettle, paint, polish and assemble each model is between 250 and 450 hours of highly skilled work depending on the complexity of the car.
The finished model is a very precise scale replica of the original car with every detail perfectly and authentically represented at an 8th of the original size. This is modelling elevated to such a high level that it becomes an art form.
Since 1995 Amalgam have been admired and hugely respected by leading designers and engineers in the European automotive industry, as well as F1 designers, drivers and team principals. Amalgam's models appear on the desks of CEOs and presidents of the world's most important car companies. Due to the extreme accuracy and authenticity of Amalgam's creations, made in small limited editions, they are also much sought after by devoted collectors of fine handmade objects across Europe and in the USA.
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