Sir Alex ferguson part 1
Working with my friend/colleague Malcolm Cook (www.freeflowcoaching.com) I have been able to enlist the support of legendary Manchester United Manager, Sir Alex Ferguson.Malcolm grew up on the same street with Sir Alex in Govan and through his career as a professional footballer and professional coach has crossed paths again with Sir Alex over the years.After speaking with Malcolm the idea of trying to enlist Mr Ferguson’s support turned into a personal letter written to the club. On my behalf Malcolm mentioned my portraits and the work I do for Leukaemia Research and the BIB (Born in Bradford) appeal and asked Sir Alex if he could help?. We enclosed a glossy colour brochure of my portraiture work to give him an idea of how his finished portrait would look.
We informed Sir Alex that preferablly I like to paint from a reference picture which I have taken myself. We understand just how busy Sir Alex is and we mentioned the option of myself working from the club photographers pictures.After a few weeks Malcolm was contacted by Mr Ferguson’s secretary. She told him Sir Alex would be very happy to have his portrait painted. You can imagine how pleased I was to receive this news.The portrait took around 4 weeks to complete. I made many small adjustments and was up most of the night some days. Because I knew Sir Alex’s portrait would be seen around the world there was extra pressure to make it as perfect as possible. Having said that, I’m a perfectionist with all the commissions I undertake and won’t sign any painting until I’m 100% satisfied with it.From the intial letter to Sir Alex in January I finally met him for the signing of the portrait on May 14th. I went with Malcolm and my photographer Gary to the Carrington training ground in Manchester. We arrived 15 minutes late due to heavy traffic and I was a bit stressed as I like to be punctual. Fortunately we arrived at the reception and had to wait about 20 minutes for Sir Alex to come down to meet us.
While we were waiting in the reception we saw Christiano Ronaldo, Gary Neville, Paul Scholes and Wayne Rooney. Because no press are allowed to the training ground the players can walk around freely and get on with their practice.
When Sir Alex came down he was really friendly and very acomadating. He was willing to pose for plenty of pictures and was in no rush to get back to business. He seemed delighted with the portrait I painted and we chatted about it’s creation and the forthcoming auction. Afterwards he sat down with us in the reception area and chatted for about 20 minutes about training and tactics. Malcolm had a few laughs with him as they discussed some old shared memories and experiences.
