'It's good around the eyes' - Eavis on portrait
BBCGlastonbury Festival founder Michael Eavis has praised the work of a local artist who was commissioned to paint a portrait of him as part of the festival's carhenge installation.
The portrait, painted from an old photo of Eavis from the 1970s, was completed by artist Tom Sturgess, who goes by the name Tommy the Vandalist.
Eavis delighted festival-goers as he was driven around Carhenge to see it. He said: "It's pretty good actually, it's very good at the eyes isn't it?"
Reacting to the visit by Eavis, Mr Sturgess, who lives in Stoke St Michael in Somerset, said: "I got the chance to shake hands with him and he seemed quite happy with it."
He added it was "an honour" to meet Eavis, adding he had not expected the visit.
"I was just in the right place at the right time," he said.
"I just happened to be here with my partner and my dad and my kid, and then when we saw the car coming in and my partner rushed over and said, 'that's my partner's painting'.
"He seemed quite happy with it. He said that I managed to capture his eyes."
The artist, who has been coming to the festival since he was 12 years old, added that he had been asked to paint the portrait by Joe Rush, the creator of Carhenge.
"Michael Eavis, obviously being the founder of such an amazing space, it was a real honour to paint him," Mr Sturgess said.
"Realism portraits is something I'm quite new to. I've been a graffiti artist for about 15 years, but I've just started dabbling in the field of realism portraits."
It took him about four to five hours to paint, but he said the nature of spray paint and graffiti means the designing process takes longer than the painting itself.
Artist Rush has been behind many of the festival's large sculptural artworks, creating Carhenge back in 1987.
"Michael Eavis really is the festival," he said.
"He means everything to the festival. To me, he's always sponsored my ideas... he trusts me to deliver it."
He added it would have been "very easy" for them to have done a "a typical Michael face", but added they "wanted to really capture the man, and the character of the man".
"We found this old image from a BBC interview in the '70s... he's got a glint in his eye and Tommy just totally caught the expression and the strength of the man in that moment," he said.
Asked what it meant to have Eavis come and see it, Mr Rush said: "It means everything to me, because it's a henge, it's a sculpture piece, it's a monument, and it's not a stage and it's not, it's not a rave... so it's just really a nice feeling."
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