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Billy Austin is a sketcher and watercolour painter extraordinaire, and we will be featuring this side of his character next week.
He’s a great fan of the American country singer Willie Nelson, and met him once at a Belfast gig where the star signed Billy’s sketch (illustrated) and was highly impressed.
Billy was delighted and it remains one of his most treasured possessions.
And it had a quirky sequel. Billy is a devoted follower of Facebook and posted the Nelson sketch and had hundreds of comments and ‘likes’.
These included an American Nelson fan, a woman who asked permission of Billy if she could copy his Nelson sketch to have it tattooed on one arm, plus could he prepare a colour version for her other arm!
“I did just that, and she sent me a digital picture of the finished articled,” said Billy. “She was delighted.”
That’s just one instance of the hundreds of sketches and paintings that Billy has produced, here and all over the Continent.