Jack Daniels, Mini portraits and Liverpool

Here is the latest commission that I finished a couple of weeks ago and let me tell you it really did test me. I was always unsure about doing this subject matter as it was such an iconic brand and the lettering was so complicated.

But I was encouraged to give it a go, and three weeks later was still painting the label, moving back and forward nudging the letters a little this way and a little that, making them slightly bigger or slightly smaller. 

My Patience was seriously tested but I persevered and I'm really happy with the end result. 

J.D - Comission

30" x 30"

Oil on panel

SOLD

After the tough slog with the JD bottle and the fact that my last few pieces were so large and complicated I needed to take a few days out, so I painted a mini portrait of my step son Spencer. 

Spencer

8" x 8"

Oil on panel. 

N.F.S

Now as you will have known from the previous posts I have been commissioned to paint a commemorative portrait of Steven Gerrard to celebrate his 100 caps for England and 600 appearances for Liverpool. I was originally supposed to be meeting with them in August but with changing schedules for both myself and Steven we had to keep pushing it further and further back until eventually we settled on a date we were both free in November.

The night before the delivery of the painting the usual doubts started to creep into any artist's mind...does it look like him...will he like it..so after I finished up painting that night at around 10:30pm I went online to flick through some images of Steven to just put these doubts to rest, only to find that his eyes were blue and not the brown that I had painted them! my reference picture for the main portrait was so poor that I was unable to see the true colour of his eyes and as they were so dark in colour assumed they were a dark brown. 

Panic kicked in at at 11:00 pm I got the easel out and paints and started to correct the eye colour and re shape his nose slightly.....thankfully It came out well and looked even more like him so the gamble paid off.   

I drove up to Liverpool with my wife, who had already stated that she was not in the slightest bit bothered by SG and that the whole football player thing, didn't really impress her (This statement will be important a little later on) 

We arrived at Melwood training ground were we were greeted by the LFC Security, after explaining who I was and what I was doing there he invited me to park in the car park, what he didn't tell me was the restrictions of parking at the very top end....I couldn't see any spaces in the areas he had said, so I continued to drive to the top end of the car park where the caliber of cars jumped from the ordinary to the extraordinary, cars so flashy and expensive that I reddened in my face at the fact I was driving a "Normal" car and that I was currently backing my huge 7 seater family car into the only available space between a Porsche and an Aston Martin, I unloaded the car to then here the Security shouting "No...No..you cant park here this is for the players"

We ended up parking on the road side and walking into the main reception we were ushered into a room ready to meet SG. 

When he arrived he had just finished training,he was really lovely and was really pleased with his portrait which was a huge relief. We chatted for quite some time about the painting and how to market it to gain the best kind of exposure to gain the best amount we can to donate to the Christie Cancer hospital. 

And what we discovered is that we both knew the owner of the huge high end clothing store Flannels in Manchester where he had seen my latest sports painting "Untitled" hanging in the office of the owner. I don't think he realized that the art work he had admired hanging in Flannels was done by the same artist who had just painted his own portrait. 

Now the biggest surprise for me was not the amazing all round experience of once again being a part of the LFC team for the day, or the amazing cars that I got to admire, or the meeting of SG and seeing other huge players just walking the corridors....No...the biggest surprise for me was the reaction of my wife when Steven walked into the room, (its at this point i'd like to point out her statement a few paragraphs up)

She was really star struck and all of a quiver....to the point where I could see her visibly shaking taking the picture of myself and Steven with the painting.

I Never expected her to react in this way....but I'll let her off....I mean it was Steven Gerrard. 

Myself and Steven Gerrard 

With his signed commemorative painting 

We were then invited to have some dinner where the players dine,we were really looked after by this lovely catering lady called Carol who I had taken  shine to when I had visited last year. 

As you can expect all the dishes were extremely healthy but that's just fine by me and so I sat down to a dish of rice, chicken and broccoli, the wife ate nothing....as she was still churned up from meeting SG. 

I said my goodbyes to SG and then left my painting with the main organizer of this whole event Chris, who is one of the most amazing and genuine guys I've ever had the pleasure to meet, he has personally raised sooo much money for the Christie and I personally cant thank him enough. 

I'll keep you updated when the Auction is up and running.