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Stan's put his name in the frame

Chris Jones
17/ 4/2008

CHARITY is in the frame for an artist who is set to auction his prize piece for a local hospice.

Kind-hearted Stan Brookfield, who specialises in painting seascapes, turned to his creative talents to produce an exquisite oil painting of the cover of Scottish band Runrig's album ‘Everything you See’.

And the folk-rockers were so taken with the work, they signed it, and are now helping to auction off the work to one of their devout fans to raise funds for Spring Hill hospice in Rochdale – a cause special to Stan’s heart.

"My mother passed away in Spring Hill in 1991." said 55-year-old Stan, who lives on Mirfield Road, Blackley. "The care she received was excellent, but at the time we had very little money to pay them for what they did.

"This is my chance to pay them back for the excellent care they gave her."

A picture of the signed original art work is set to feature in the next copy of Runrig's newsletter, which will be dispatched to over 25,000 adoring fans from all over world, who will be keen to bid for a unique item of signed memorabilia.

"I'm a big fan of the band myself," added Stan. "When I got the album I thought I’d have a go at painting it to hang on my own wall.

"When I finished it I asked them to sign it and was actually able to go and meet them in the person and it all snowballed from their.

"Although I won’t be able to hang it on my wall now, I've been able to meet them and have my 15 minutes of fame and hopefully it will raise a lot of money."

The band are also considering using an another piece by Stan as the cover of their next album.

It’s been a rocky ride for Stan since his car washing business collapsed four years ago. But proving every cloud has a silver lining, losing his business has freed up time to allow Stan to pick up a paint brush after decades away from the canvas.

"I started painting when I was in my teens really," said Stan. "But as I got older I had less and less time, then about four years ago I lost my business and I had a lot of free time on my hands again, so I decided to start painting again."

Stan, who also works part-time as a night-porter at weekends, specialises in painting seascapes.

"I really enjoy painting seascapes, they're mostly imagined, but I take inspiration from things I see around me.

"For example I did a painting of a seascape from Cornwall and added some seagulls in that I saw in Plant Hill."

He’s already sold work to the four corners of the UK and with his latest work up for auction wiith a band who have a worldwide following, who knows where his latest work might end up.