Top artists, Sir Peter Blake, Jack Vettriano, Stella Vine, Gerald Scarfe and Rankin have created portraits of British sporting stars to help raise money for the charity, Sport Relief. The first part of this project was televised in a two-part documentary during March this year. For the final fundraising push, a charity auction will be held at Bonhams in Knightsbridge on Wednesday 22 October 2008. Sport Relief raises money that is spent by Comic Relief to transform lives in the UK and across the world’s poorest countries.
Pop artist, Sir Peter Blake has painted Ricky Hatton. Political caricaturist, Gerald Scarfe has also produced a portrait of the champion boxer and Chelsea footballer, Didier Drogba. Scottish artist, Jack Vettriano and the A-list celebrities’ favourite photographer Rankin have captured an image of Zara Phillips. Artist Stella Vine has produced portraits of Didier Drogba and England manager, Fabio Capello.
On painting Zara Phillips, artist, Jack Vettriano said, “From the second I heard about this, it was never going to be anything to do with royalty, it was always going to be a more natural rather than a formal portrait.”
Political cartoonist Gerald Scarfe faced a different challenge saying, “As they’re sports people I’ve got to be kind to them – it’s not like drawing Tony Blair, or George Bush, or Brown. What I’ll be really going for, is to bring out the character of each person.”
Sir Peter Blake described Ricky Hatton as having a “traditional boxer’s face” and said he was particularly interested in his broken nose.
This charity sale will be part of the Vision 21 – Part One sale at Bonhams in Montpelier Street, Knightsbridge on Wednesday 22 October 2008.
Auction info www.bonhams.com/vision21