During a visit to a wreckers yard I came across this mechanism inside an empty wheel arch. It had a strongly eerie feel and I really wanted to paint it, but the car body was very ordinary so I substituted another wrecked car and then played around with the composition for a while until I settled on the gate/Coke can and the feet.

The problem with painting bits of cars or trucks is working out where all the tubes and lumps of metal go, what they join to, and what they're for. Frequently an essential part disappears into blackness in the photograph, even after digital manipulation and, if I just guess at it and get it wrong, I can guarantee some smart person will smugly tell me so. You have to be able to accept the whole image absolutely, and not go peering at it, unsure.

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