Paintings, statues and tattoos... cricket and art are fundamentally linked

THOMAS BLOW: Art is prevalent in every part of the cricketing world but why is the relationship so tight? And what of its future?

Art is a crucial part of cricket’s wider culture.

If you go walk Lord’s, you are haunted by iconic paintings of Shane Warne, Ian Botham, Andrew Strauss, WG Grace and Graham Gooch.

Across England, you’ll find paintings of cricket pitches erected in pubs, cafes and sports clubs.

Throughout history, there are dozens of examples of cricket-themed paintings by famous artists like LS Lowry, Russell Drysdale and Philip Hermogenes Calderon.

And even here at The Cricketer we sell our own collection of iconic prints, available through our online store.

But why is the connection between cricket and art so strong and historic?

Former England wicketkeeper Jack Russell, who today is a very successful artist, believes the link between the two began as a means of recording the game.

^{Alec Stewart, in his playing days, stands in front of a painting at Lord's}

“Cricket and art have always been linked,” says Russell. “Because you can go back and look at pictures where they are playing with a curved bat and there’s no middle stump.

“I think even in the early days artists were trying to capture the game and record it. There’s a definite overlap in that respect.”

Pete McKee, an artist who has depicted Joe Root, Michael Vaughan and Geoffrey Boycott, also recognises the need to record the sport's history.

“Art is important in some respects because it needs to document glory and great players, and that’s a great way of doing that,” says McKee. “Obviously, art captures emotion rather than just having a straight up photograph, so there’s a long tradition of celebrating cricket through art.”

But Christina Pierce, an acclaimed artist who specialises in cricket, has focused on the similarities between the two professions.

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“It’s [art] not so different to cricket in the end because hand eye co-ordination is really important in painting,” explains Pierce. “And you have to have the strength of character to deal with rejection; putting yourself out there in public.

“There’s lots of practice and hard work. And also, being able to calm down after a success [comparing to a wicket or a century] – so if you’ve had a show, or sold a painting, you get all hyper, and you’ve got to calm yourself down.”

Over the course of history, thousands of artists have depicted the game. But what inspires them to so?

“I’m not just painting a landscape – I’m more interested in the cricketers’ movements,” says Pierce. “I do a lot of sketching in the nets. When Oskar [her son] was younger, I took him to training sessions there, and it’s very difficult to get close up to cricketers in action, so the nets are really your best point of focus.

“From a distance you can tell who is who by the way they stand. I mean, you could always tell who KP is, couldn’t you! You can also tell the bowlers from their action and the way they move. And that is more interesting to me rather than the landscapes themselves.”

^{Peter Trego's tattoos are visible while he bowls}

“For me, I love subject matters that are quite emotive,” says McKee. “So that kind of passion for those beautiful sunny days and donning the whites; inspiring the youth to play cricket and the summer days where you spend the six-week holidays with a little kind of county slogger cricket bat.

“All those sorts of things get me emotionally and I relish that.

“It’s tapping into that emotion and pride, so for me it’s great to be able to do that, and the love that you’ve got for the sport can be easily translated into art.”

Yet there is far more to art’s relationship with cricket. Tattoos have become synonymous with the sport in recent years; Alex Hales, Virat Kohli, Chris Gayle, Kevin Pietersen and Brendon McCullum among the players to have been inked.

 "Art is moving forward with T20"

“Tattoos aren’t everybody’s taste,” Ben Stokes said in a 2018 Instagram post. “But they are mine, all my tattoos mean something to me personally and are very special to me.”

Photographs and textiles have also played a crucial role in documenting the history of the game throughout the last century, as too have statues. The likes of Fred Trueman, Don Bradman and WG Grace have all been immortalised through resin and bronze.

Yet one big question remains – with the rise of the white-ball game and the global demise of Test cricket, will this vital part of cricket’s wider culture remain prevalent?

Pierce believes so, although she accepts there are differences in the way the formats are recorded.

“It’s [T20] a lot more modern, it’s a lot more immediate,” says Pierce.” You have to be very, very quick. It’s not so much a luxurious oil painting, but It’s the energy.

^{The Australian team line up next to a statue of Sir Don Bradman}

“There’s a huge amount of energy – especially somewhere like India or Sri Lanka, where everything is going on. And there’s just so much energy there it inspires you. Whereas if you go to Lord’s for a beautiful sunny day of a Test match or at a village green, it’s a different level of energy.

“We’re moving into the new modern era. People are using more computer-based graphics. Art is moving forward with the T20, rather than the older pictures of the cricket ground. It’s stepping away from the pictures of the cricket ground.”

McKee agrees. “If you try and modernise the game, then more of a modern concept of what is art will maybe take over,” explains the Yorkshire-born artist. “With T20 cricket it’s more visceral, it’s more energised, so therefore that would almost lend itself to that kind of approach, or more graphic in a sense, rather than the traditional five-day game, which is quite the traditional approach to painting.

“So maybe they’ll go hand in hand, where people take on the challenge to represent that game in that particular way. So, it may be more graphic, more digital, who knows?”

While the future of cricket might be uncertain with the introduction of new formats and the struggles of old, one thing is for sure – art will continue to be a major part of the sport’s wider culture.

Expect the young stars of today – Rashid Khan, Rishabh Pant and Sam Curran, for example – to one day be immortalised through the magic of art.  

Own one of The Cricketer’s iconic prints for just £59.99 through our online store