Amy Winehouse Portrait Goes on Sale to Benefit the Late Singer's Foundation

Another Winehouse painting.

Image via James Wilkinson on Twitter

A new portrait of Amy Winehouse sold for £500 on Friday at the Concorde Club in Eastleigh, Hampshire, England as part of a month-long auction that raised over £4,000 for charity. The work was painted by James Wilkinson, an artist based in Essex, England famous for depicting musical icons.

Wilkinson's portrait, At Home With Ray, features the late singer at a crossroads with one of her musical influencers, Ray Charles. According to the painter, the title come from the line "I'd rather be home with Ray" in Winehouse's song "Rehab." 

"I'm a big fan of Amy Winehouse so it was a real privilege to have been asked and I took it on with relish," Wilkinson told BBC. "I know art is sometimes there to shock, but that's not my business. I wanted to create a piece of work that Mitch and Janis [Amy's parents] would enjoy."

Before the commission, Wilkinson decided to donate half of the price of the painting to charity. The proceeds went to the Amy Winehouse Foundation, an organization that combats drug and alcohol use in young people. Winehouse, who died from an alcohol overdose in 2011, would have turned 30 on Saturday.

This is not the first portrait of Winehouse that made headlines. Last November, the National Portrait Gallery in London acquired a blue painting of the singer titled Amy-Blue by Marlene Dumas.

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 [via BBC]

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