Artist’s quirky take on Cherries proves hit with fans

Josie Lee, a local artist and keen Cherries supporter, was so inspired by the exploits of Eddie Howe and his team that she put paintbrush to canvas to celebrate their promotion to the Premier League.

It was the first time she had ever depicted a football scene but the end result proved hugely popular, selling within 10 minutes of being displayed in the Courtenay Fine Art Gallery in Westbourne.

A number of prints made of the painting are also selling well, with fans keen to have a souvenir of AFC Bournemouth’s most successful season ever. The artwork was also included on the cover of an AFC Bournemouth promotion anthem written by another supporter Adam Scholey.

Josie said she wanted to try and capture individual players’ unique characteristics and traits so the picture features Harry Arter being booked, Kenwyne Jones performing his trademark back flip and Tommy Elphick carrying out his pre-match goalpost ritual.

Diminutive players Tokelo Rantie and Ryan Fraser are stacked on top of each other for added height, Marc Pugh is portrayed as a tornado and Andrew Surman is pictured with a baby, in a nod to the fact he turned out for the Cherries the day after his third child was born.

She said: “I wanted to celebrate team efforts, whilst acknowledging individual enterprise. I would have liked to have included every player onto the pitch but had to give priority to those traits or idiosyncrasies easily identifiable.

“I also wanted to portray their history-making defeat of Birmingham, even though I did take artistic licence by making it a home match.”

She said the artwork was a spontaneous idea that gathered momentum as the season finale approached.

“The team performance was so consistently entertaining and exciting, providing us with so many hours of heart-pounding pleasure,” she said.

“I decided to express my appreciation in a painting. That it turned out to be such fun in the process was just an added bonus.”