12:00a.m. 11th October 2008

| By Peter Gardiner

Chris Vermeulen gets in touch with his artistic side for Doodle Jam. Photo: Michaela O'Neill/ 178798

On a good day, Yandina’s MotoGP two-wheel terror Chris Vermeulen likes to let it all hang out doing 300kmh.

Yesterday, he had to expose his doodle at a virtual dawdle, baring his sensitive side in a revealing 60-minute bit of exhibitionism.

Vermeulen flaunted his hidden talent to a MixFM studio audience, including an impressed Caroline Hutchinson.

The 26-year-old motorcycle ace regathered his composure from a disappointing 15th place in his home GP to take part in a doodle face-off with Caroline’s co-host Mark as part of the DoodleJam charity art auction.

A range of celebrities – including jazz great James Morrison, local artist David Hart and mayor Bob Abbot – will have their artistic talent displayed to raise funds for the Sunshine Coast Hospice on October 26 at the Australia Noosa Lakes Resort.

Vermeulen said his only artistic inspiration was “Sprocket” – a character who does caricatures of MotoGP’s fast movers.

“So I used the painting techniques I learned in Grade Four,” he said.

That would explain the fluffy rain cloud and the cheesy yellow sun in the corner over what might have been the police outline around a dead body – or the Phillip Island race track.

“There is no right or wrong in art,” declared the wannabe Picasso, who was getting the hang of at least talking up his work like an artist.

The Vermeulen original and Mark’s “Sunrise over Mount Coolum ... or Possibly an Army Helmet” can be viewed on doodlejam.com.

DoodleJam’s Jo Francis said there was a great power in colour and image, and it was fun to unlock the inner artist within so many artistically inhibited extrovert-type celebrities.