The Dennis Vol Painting ...... A Family Legend ......

Well I haven't been in here for awhile but wanted to get another story out there of another of my dads racing pics from back in the day. It was actually a 'portrait oil painting' my mom and dad collaborated on in 1967. My dad took the picture at the Elsinore TT scrambles track .... and my mom painted over it after my dad printed it on a canvas type textured paper back in the day.

Anyway ..... it was such a neat shot that ma and pa decided to make it a 20"x24" work of art. And boy did mom do it up with her painting skills on this one !! They did quite a few of these 'portrait oil paintings' back then for the racers and the like, but this one of Dennis Vol hung proudly in all it's glory at the entrance to my dads photo studio in Ontario CA for awhile back then. Just an incredible work of art ... quite the team ma an pa were.

Times being what they were down the road some, my dad sold the painting to an 'unknown gentleman' who wandered into the studio one day for ..... $20.00. And to this day I'm not sure who threw more of a fit when the members of our family found out about it that night when my dad got home !! LOL !! And thus the "Dennis Vol Painting" became a household word, legend, lesson, what have you for the next 40 or so years in our family. The subject was always brought up .... actually still is in our household ......

So fast forward to 2008 or 09 ..... when I started archiving my late fathers motorcycle racing photography. I found the original black and white negative to the picture one day, but of course an image of the finished famous, immortal, priceless painting was now just a long lost fading memory of something very special in my family's history. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA !!! ;)

But wait ! Upon further digging in my dads negatives ..... was one COLOR COPY Kodak 120 NEGATIVE of the Dennis Vol Painting !! Found in 2009 !! Hadn't seen this image since I was a little kid .....



'Click' on it and it will enlarge a bit. We have no idea what ever became of the one and only Dennis Vol painting ..... but it is great to have a decent copy negative of it and see it again so many years later. So thanks dad for taking the time one day to get a shot of it back then and share it with us again all these years later !!

In closing ..... a couple years prior to the 'color copy negative discovery' I got an e mail from the 'Dennis Vol' who just wanted to say hello to my mom after seeing some of my own photography online. But to this day .... we don't think Dennis ever saw the painting of himself on his Bultaco... and any contact info we had on him is outdated, not active now. Such is life .... keep racing .....