Craddock's passion for painting

Clean sheets are everything when you are a Premier League defender but for Wolves skipper Jody Craddock they are also there to be painted on.

He tells MARK ANDREWS about his new business venture.

The sense of elation, the jubilation, the adrenaline coursing through the veins. For a few brief moments you are The Man, King of the Castle, the undisputed star of the show. The feeling of scoring a Premier League goal to the roar of thousands of cheering fans is an emotion that very few will ever experience.

"I really enjoy painting goal celebrations," says Wolves' skipper Jody Craddock. "The feeling you get of scoring a goal is something that only a footballer can experience. It's quite hard putting that emotion into a painting, but I try,"

As well as being the lynch pin at the heart of Wolves defence for the past six years, Craddock has also been building something of a reputation as a creative player with a paintbrush.

Yesterday his new business venture Art Affect launched at the NEC Spring Fair in Birmingham, selling prints of his work as well as original painting. And the 34-year-old is hoping that when he finally does hang up his boots, he will be picking up his palette full time, and making a new career for himself as an artist.

"I will be very lucky if I can have two careers doing the things I love," says the Redditch-born centre-half, who now lives in Kidderminster. "It's not like work at all for me.

"Football always comes first, a footballer is something I always wanted to be as a kid, I never said I want to be an artist when I grow up. But it's no secret that I'm coming to the end of my playing days, and I would love to be able to spend more time painting when I retire."

It is a very different career path to the one most footballers choose after retirement. "I think Jim Whitley paints, he was a footballer, and I know David James does a bit, but I don't know of any others.

"Coaching was something I wanted to do when I was younger, but as you get older you realise the amount of work the coaches and managers put in, the time they spend away, and I wouldn't like that, I like to be with my family."

As would be expected, many of his works are Wolves related. There is the painting of Wolves players in celebratory mood after clinching the Football League Championship title last season, and another one captures the team in a huddle at the start of a game. And he has also captured some of the big name footballers from other clubs, including sacked England captain John Terry, controversial £32 million winger Robinho, and tabloid favourite David Beckham.

But Craddock is keen to avoid being pigeon-holed merely as a footballer painting other footballers.

"I experiment with different styles from contemporary portraitures, to landscapes to wildlife," he says. Seascapes are another subject he finds fascinating. "I will always paint what feels right to me."

Even so, you are unlikely to find him sitting with his easel at the side of the river.

"I'm usually studio based, perhaps I will get out more when I'm retired, but I work with oils rather than water colours, so it's more difficult.

"I take a lot of photographs, although sometimes when I see something I think I will take a photograph and then I realise I don't have a camera with me. A photographer called Sam Bagnall, I consider him a good friend, lets me use a lot of his pictures. That is very good, because not all photographers will let you do that."

Craddock's passion for art goes back to his childhood, when he would spend his time drawing. "There is certainly an artistic line in my family, and my great grandfather in the First World War would decorate his letters home with pen and ink drawings."

After studying A-levels I also studied A-Level Art which I'm pleased to say I passed. This encouraged me to experiment with different media from silk screen prints and etching to acrylic painting. I was never taught the use of oil paints, so in this field I suppose I'm self taught.

"Part of my ability is in the blood, part educated but the largest part is practice and experience."

Craddock was playing with Sunderland when his art work started picking up recognition. A gallery in the north-east of England exhibited some of his work at the Affordable Art Fair in Bristol, and later in London.

"What started as a hobby was now being viewed as a talent and people were requesting commissions. This lead me to my first solo exhibition which was held at Sunderland Winter Gardens, a great personal achievement."

He says there probably were one or two raised eyebrows in the dressing room when his team-mates discovered his hieden talent.

"I think one or two people were surprised, but I've never really been into golf or anything like that," he says, adding that when they saw his work many were sufficiently impressed to commission paintings.

Does he find it hard to part with paintings, which in many cases, might have taken 20 hours to produce?

"Very often, I hang on to them and do nothing with them, then I realise I had better sell it. You know you've got to do it."

*Jody Craddock's Art Affect business will be exhibiting his work at the NEC Spring Fair International every day until Thursday