Members of Welland Valley Arts Society compete to create best portrait of Mayor of Stamford

Stamford’s mayor took a long, hard look at himself as he judged a portrait competition.

Following in the footsteps of the many mayors before him Stamford Town Councillor Andy Croft sat while his portrait was painted.

Breaking from tradition he allowed a group of artists from Welland Valley Arts Society to compete to paint him the best, similar to Sky Arts’ Portrait Artist of the Year.

Artist Paul Crewe said: “We wanted to do a portrait of the mayor but we didn’t want it to be really stuffy and sombre.

“We thought what can we do to make it more fun.”

The Stamford mayor sat still in the corner of the Gallery Stamford in Maiden Lane for three hours on Friday last week (July 14) while Paul, Mike Helmy, Bob Hooke, Tricia Osborne and Christopher Metcalf carefully studied his face and painted a portrait of him.

There were a variety of techniques on show from water colours to spare paint from redecorating.

It is not the first time Andy has been the subject of a group of painters. Previously he composed a song while sitting there but this time he used the moment to relax ahead of the tough decision that would await him.

Once the time was up and the brushes were down, he slowly paced up and down the row of paintings pondering which was his favourite.

Thinking out loud, he said: “It is difficult.

“People who know me will see which is most accurate - but I don’t always go for that.

“I certainly like elements of all of them.”

After deliberating he awarded Tricia’s watercolour painting first place as looked most like him and said the remaining four were ‘all runners up’.

The winning painting will be put up at Andy’s house - all though he doesn’t know exactly where - and he is ‘seriously thinking about purchasing them all’.

The portraits will feature in an exhibition later this year.