A brush with rock as artist Lee turns his focus from football to music

Lee Buccilli has been artist in residence at Leeds United for the past two years, but is now changing direction with a collection of work inspired by some of the world's iconic musicians.

- by Harriet Sutton

Leeds-based Artist Lee Bucciilli pictured at Melodie 71 in Kirkstall. Pictures: Simon Hulme

(Simon Hulme)

The impressive result is more than a dozen portraits of artists looking electric, live on stage. One of the most striking is a closeup portrait of John Lennon which Lee using bigger brushes.

“That was quite fun to paint,” he said. “Close up it looks like a map, a map of blues.”

One portrait, which stands nearly 1m tall and can be seen at the Melodie 71 café bar in Kirkstall, features famous jazz trumpeter and vocalist Chet Baker.

David Byrne, who fronted the group Talking Heads, is also pictured, as is Grace Jones, the boundary-pushing model, singer, and actor.

Buccilli paints in enamel on aluminium, a technique he picked up years ago when he started work as a sign painter for the Tetley and Ansell breweries.