Jacksonville, FL. November 2007 –Acclaimed artist and illustrator Robert McGinnis has created the artwork for the 2008 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance signature poster. McGinnis’s subject was the career and cars of Amelia’s upcoming honoree Indy 500 winner Parnelli Jones.
McGinnis has illustrated more than 40 movie posters, including several of the James Bond films, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” “The Odd Couple” and “Barbarella”, depicting stars such as Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, Jack Lemmon, Jane Fonda, Burt Reynolds, Raquel Welch, and James Coburn. He’s also illustrated many magazine articles and more than 1,200 paperback book covers (detective novels, thrillers, gothic novels, murder mysteries, romance novels, and westerns), playing a role in the pulp fiction boom in the ’60s and ’70s.
McGinnis is a member of the prestigious Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame, which includes among its ranks Norman Rockwell, N.C. Wyeth, Maxfield Parrish, Winslow Homer, Robert Peak, Frederic Remington, and Frank McCarthy.
Since Amelia’s first show in 1996, a poster has been produced each year to commemorate the event. Amelia Island was the first to celebrate the career and achievements of a famous racing personality as its main theme, which makes it unique among the worlds’ top concours. Past artists who have created art for Amelia include Automotive Fine Arts Society (AFAS) members William Motta, Ken Dallison, and Craig Warwick. Their subjects were many of auto racing’s greatest such as Sir Stirling Moss, Dan Gurney, Bobby Unser, Carroll Shelby, Hurley Haywood, Derek Bell MBE, and Phil Hill.
The 2008 Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance will be held March 7-9 on the 10th and 18th fairways of The Golf Club of Amelia Island at Summer Beach adjacent to The Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island. Parnelli Jones is the honoree and the cars of the E.R. Thomas Motor Car Co. will be featured. The show’s Foundation has donated over $1.5 million to Community Hospice of Northeast Florida, Inc. since 1996.