I was lucky enough to meet Mest when he was painting this piece, just a couple of days before the Italy v England Euro 21 cup final. Perhaps the less said about the result of that match, the better, although being an Italophile, losing to the Italians wasn’t so bad.
Mest wasn’t at all what I expected, but then I can’t think of a single artist who looked anything like I thought they might before I met them. His simple large letters in white are embellished with a large red cross through the middle to create a Mestivellian St George cross, The whole thing neatly bound with a black and blue border. A nice patriotic football piece. I must be getting close to having enough of his work for a gallery.
