Famous shoes Paintings by Jenny Rowlands

Well-worn and well-loved shoes speak so eloquently of the person wearing them. A painting of those shoes can present an interesting portrait of that person, of partners, a family, or even a whole board of directors…..

The SHOEBOX contains images of several paintings, some of which were commissions, mainly of individuals, and a married couple or two.

For the FAMOUS FEET exhibition, I wrote to a number of high-profile people, asking them to lend me a pair of their favourite well-worn shoes. I thought it would be interesting to do these pictures of ordinary people who had made something of their lives because of their individual talent.

As I live in Wales, I decided that everyone involved had to have some sort of link with Wales. So it has become a small showcase of Welsh talent, encompassing the worlds of politics, sport, culture and entertainment. The monies from the sale of these fifteen paintings will go to BARNADO’S CYMRU. All of them are shown in the Shoebox.

Dame Shirley Bassey sent a pair of classy slingbacks, in a Jiffy bag, within a week of receiving my letter; others trickled in over the following months and, starting from the sending out of the first letters of request, which were accompanied by a letter from Eileen Denekamp, of Barnado’s Cymru, the work has taken two years to produce, alongside other work.

Bryn Terfel’s Fan Club secretary, Marilyn, brought his brogues along, in their original box, complete with mud from the Millennium Stadium from when he’d last worn them. Ioan Gruffudd asked his Mum to drop his shoes off, and I somehow got hold of Ryan Giggs’ through his Grandad. Craig Bellamy’s very first trainer, the wonderful Mac, got me a pair of his football boots – I was surprised at how clean they were, but apparently, clubs employ cleaners to maintain them. Rhodri Morgan’s I collected from the Labour party office in Cardiff – they were masquerading as a very posh pair in a very posh bag… Michael Howards’ got a bit squashed in transit – so I made my husband wear them round the house to re-form them, but he didn’t like it – it was hot, and they didn’t really go with his shorts.