Aspiring artist inundated with dozens of commissions for his ‘terrible’ paintings
An accountant who painted a terrible portrait of his wife as a wedding gift has unexpectedly been inundated with dozens of art commissions from around the world.
Jamie Matthias, 41, started the side hustle off by accident and his wife Kate thought the portrait was so funny she posted it on social media.
But it suddenly received a lot of attention after people started commenting, liking and sharing the post.
People are now desperate for Jamie to create funny versions of themselves, so much so that he now juggles the job with accounting.
The dad-of-three, from Alsager, Staffordshire, said: ‘I actually don’t mean to paint badly and I’m doing my best to recreate the photos I get sent but it’s just the way they turn out.
‘I try and create an alternate universe where proportions have no meaning. I’ve painted for years but I had no idea they were so bad until people started telling me.
‘Kate was making a comment about how bad mine were and I said I would paint one for our wedding day, as a joke.
‘It was brought out by the kids during my wedding speech and everyone loved it, it was hysterical.’
Jamie added that he has been left stunned by the online reception.
He said: ‘We’ve got orders all over England, Scotland, Wales and even Northern Ireland, people all over the country.
‘We’re at 71 orders now, and we put it up on January 2.
‘We joke Kate is head of financial distribution and her bridesmaid Kate is head of marketing.
‘It seems to be getting a lot of noise on social media, we’ve got just over of 1,800 followers.’
Talking a bit more about his new side hustle, he added: ‘We’ve said to people there’s a three to five week waiting list but they all understand.
‘I’ll keep forgetting to paint someone’s nose and have to keep mixing paint and add it later. It adds to the comedy value.
‘This is my standard, there’s no risk of it getting better. I am absolutely not an art teacher.
‘I think everyone seems to appreciate them in some way. They are terrible but Kate just said it’s so much fun, she appreciates it.’
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