In a motorsports world increasingly shaped by digital content, Chris Pullen is turning his passion for racing into art.
Known online as DRAutoArt, Pullen has turned his passion for motorsports into detailed graffiti-style paintings that capture the drivers, cars, and moments that make NASCAR, IndyCar, and Formula One.
Pullan grew up in Yorkshire, England, where motorsports has been a part of his life for as long as he can remember. His early exposure to racing came from watching events with his father, who also built rally cars.
“Motorsports in general has always been apart of my life. I remember my dad was a keen avid Formula One fan, so I remember watching races with him every weekend,” Pullen said. “My dad was also very keen on rallying WRC, he built a couple of Ford rally cars and used to work for Mitsubishi at one point.”
Pullen’s interest in auto racing eventually expanded to American series, particularly NASCAR. Although the sport has a smaller following in the United Kingdom, its hard-nosed, aggressive and gritty style quickly caught his attention.
“I absolutely love it now, it was not really a thing over in the UK where I am. It was so hard to follow, but with streaming rights and things that are more easily accessible now, it’s a lot easier to get into,” Pullen said. “I got hooked on the excitement and the drama of NASCAR and loved it ever since.”
From a young age, Pullen felt pressure to meet the high expectations of a school system that emphasized doing things by the book.
“In school, art was always my favorite subject, but the way the high schools work over here, the national curriculum is so tight that I felt it drives any creativity out of you,” Pullen said. “You have to follow everything by the book, you weren’t allowed to do your own thing,”
When the pandemic disrupted daily life in 2020, Pullen rediscovered his love for painting. He set up a studio in a backyard shed and eventually turned his work into a full-time occupation.
“When COVID-19 hit, I pretty much lost my job because of that, so I funded a little studio shed in my back garden and have just been doing it full-time ever since,” Pulled added. “When I first started doing the NASCAR stuff, painting the race winner every single week, it just kind of took off fairly quickly. I think one of the first was the three-wide-finish at Atlanta and Daniel Suárez won, he reposted the painting on X. It went crazy from there.”
Suárez wasn’t the last driver to notice Pullen’s work. Joe Gibbs Racing driver Chase Briscoe has also taken notice. “I’ve had a couple of chats with Chase. He even commissioned me to do some paintings for one of his sponsors,” Pullen said, smiling. “Seeing people that have bought those pieces and have taken them to the track and then got them signed by drivers, it’s great to see.”
For the style of the pieces, one question arises. Why exactly ‘graffiti’ style? Pullen believes the style reflects the speed and energy of racing, with bright colors and bold designs.
“I like the speed of it, the bright colors, the brighter the better,” Pullen said. “You can take inspiration from these things off the side of buildings, people just tagging things everywhere, just a lot of inspiration of what you see out there and you think ‘Oh, I’ll try that in a painting of mine and that’s an effect I could use on things like that.”
With so many vibrant and flashy colors to ground across hundreds of pieces, it might seem impossible to choose one that stands out from the rest. Pullen’s was a no-brainer: MotoGP legend, Valentino Rossi.
“One of the first pieces I did that sold really well was a Valentino Rossi piece. He was like an idol, a hero to me growing up,” Pullen said. “I managed to get one of those pieces signed so I’ve got one of those on my wall and all it’s fluorescent colors with the yellows, pinks, blues all that in it. So that’s one of my favorite ones.”
