Story

I painted this portrait once I knew Lou Reed was coming to my home city. I was pleased that Lou was to be playing at a small sold out venue, where I knew a great spot to wait, and Lou would have to walk directly past me to get into the venue. I arrived there late on the afternoon hoping to meet Lou arriving for a sound check. However when I did get there, I was told that Lou had already gone inside, I’d missed him by about fifteen minutes ! They told me it was unlikely he’d come back out until late that night after the show. So I took off and returned later about an hour or so before the end of the gig. I could hear the music from outside and so I knew when he was just about finished on stage. Time passed by and there was no sign of Lou coming out in a hurry ! Finally about twenty people had gathered to see Lou come out and were hoping to get photos and autographs. Then a lady came out and told us all that, “ Lou Reed will be out shortly, he will stop to sign autographs but only if you all stand in an orderly queue”.

We all fumbled for a space in the queue and I found myself second in line. A few minutes later, some two hours after the show, Lou Reed slowly walked out to us, as he came towards the queue of fans he pointed to me holding my painting and said, “very good”. He spoke with the first waiting fan signed a program and accepted a proposal for a photo in the darkness but only to Lou’s request of, “ no flash “. So what happens…..the flash goes off !, I remember thinking to myself, ‘OH NO ! now you’ve blown it for us all, he’s going to leave!’ but he didn’t , he then took my painting and as he held it he seemed to like it. To which I asked if he could sign it for me. I also said to him that I would like to paint for him and asked how could I arrange something, he pointed to his manager and asked me to go and talk to him. ‘WOW!’ I thought, so I spoke to his manager who gave me some contact details, the best part was knowing I would be in Lou’s home city of New York within a few weeks to deliver the work in person.

I set about painting another portrait for Lou Reed and delivered it to his New York office in February 2007 thrilled to know Lou Reed had accepted my offer and now had one of my works.

'click here to view Lou Reed's gift portrait