What If It Works – The Power of Exploration and Eureka Moments
- Apr 7
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 15
Written by Paul Chenard, Inspirational Artist
Paul Chenard is known internationally for featuring the history of motorsports through his art and his postings. He is also the creator of the limited edition book "Silver Clouds - The 1934 Grand Prix season" which he wrote, illustrated, designed and hand-assembled, the 1st and only automotive-subject book done this way, now well sold out.
Sometimes the most meaningful breakthroughs begin the moment we stop asking, “What if it fails?” and start wondering, “What if it works?” In this reflection, Paul Chenard uses the drama of the 1956 Mille Miglia, and his own artistic leap of faith, to explore how curiosity, experimentation, and a willingness to embrace the unknown can open the door to growth, discovery, and those unforgettable eureka moments.
Before its last edition in 1957, featured in the recent movie “Ferrari”, the Mille Miglia, 1000 Mile race, was a daring test of cars and drivers on 1000 miles of public roads in Italy. The 1956 edition was held in the rain, making it a rather chaotic, stressful, and uncomfortable race. There are a lot of unknowns in 1000 miles of racing!
In the featured artwork of that race, Italian driver Eugenio Castellotti (1930 to 1957) races the Scuderia Ferrari 290 MM Scaglietti chassis number 0616 to a single handed win, after over eleven and a half hours of driving. While Castellotti was out to win the race, he could not dwell on “what ifs”, but could only take the next turn and deal with what was waiting for him.
Scuderia Ferrari took the first five spots in the race, followed by the Mercedes cars in the next three places. Even in the miserable weather, the loyal fans were still there to see their heroes race. To create this composition, I referenced a few images of the car and the attending spectators, combining them until I could tell the story. To achieve the sense of heavy rain in this piece, I created the artwork using intense watercolor pencils on watercolor paper, a process that took approximately 30 hours.
Plunging in
Once finished, to achieve the desired effect, I went to the sink and ran the artwork under the tap, washing the color intensity away. As soon as it dried thoroughly, I redid the color on the car only and drew white lines through the background spectators to push them back even further in the art.
It is a fact that I could have destroyed the art by running it under the tap, but I succeeded. The only question I asked myself here was, “Will anyone die if I don’t succeed?”
The answer is quite obvious, but it’s incredible how many people would never try it. They put up unseen barriers for themselves instead of exploring the possibilities. Artists should always be pushing boundaries. That is how they grow and mature. At the same time, their confidence grows, pushing them to take more leaps into experimentation and exploration.
No harm in trying
Interestingly, I seem to always succeed in these leaps of faith and sincerely believe that this approach to the task unburdens me from my own negative “what ifs”.
My “what ifs” switch from “what if it doesn’t work?” to “what if it works?” This change in point of view brings to light exciting possibilities that were not evident at first. As you start to make this a practice, you can see its applications in everyday life.
What’s around the corner
A while back, when our children were younger, we did a family trip through various parts of Spain. The children were out of school, and our travels were not fully mapped out, leaving room for exploration.
This lack of structure was taking a toll on them, with the routine of their school life on hold for a few weeks. I took them aside and asked them to look at their feet, which they did. I told them that their feet would take new steps every day of our trip, bringing them to new and exciting places. Their schoolmates’ steps would follow a similar pattern each day.
I asked them if they knew what was around the corner, and they said they didn’t. I told them, “Isn’t that great? It will be brand new, something new to discover and appreciate!” With that little speech, their perspective changed, and they opened up to the beautiful experiences lying before them.
Death, taxes and?
They say that death and taxes are the only sure things, but they conveniently leave out change. Change is also just around the corner, and we really don’t know what is waiting there. Just as on that trip, we can be scared of not knowing, or be excited about not knowing.
Life is a trip, and its unknowns are just around the corner. We can embrace not knowing and explore the child’s curiosity of the unknown. It makes us live more in the here and now, not in the future, not looking too far down the road, and opening up to the wonderful possibilities that are just around the corner.
Exploration
As we bring our own barriers down, and our fear of what’s around the corner, it becomes easier to launch into exploration.
This exploration often leads to an awareness of the possibilities right before us. Those possibilities have likely always been there, we're just too distracted by other things to notice them. Unburdening ourselves encourages this exploration, opening up possibilities that, in turn, often lead to eureka moments.
Who doesn’t like eureka moments?
Read more from Paul Chenard
Paul Chenard, Inspirational Artist
Paul Chenard is an internationally recognized motorsports artist who highlights motorsports history stories through his art. Though trained as a graphic designer with a 30+ year career, he is self-taught as an artist. Without the "burden" of classical art training, Paul tends to explore various unorthodox medium and approaches, hand-cut eaves troughing aluminum sheet, hand-cut cultured papers, pen and ink on canvas, laser-cut stainless steel to create his art. He gives talks to artist groups on exploration and inspiration. His work has been published in approximately 80 publications worldwide and he is represented in the UK by the Historic Car Art Gallery. He lives in the beautiful village of Wolfville, Nova Scotia in Canada.
