Shane Gillen is raffling off his now-famous pandemic portrait of Matt Damon for charity – and he’s even managed to get the Hollywood actor to sign it.Â
Sharing a video of himself working on the portrait, snippets from the radio interview Matt Damon did on Spin1038 played in the background. Posting a follow-up to the original video online, Shane shared how he managed to get Matt to not only sign the portrait but to agree to it being raffled off in aid of Pieta House.
“Since lockdown began I revisited a passion of mine which is drawing and art, and I just decided to start drawing again. I found an old sketch pad and I started drawing away and I had no major ambitions or intentions with any of this which is why it’s all taken me completely by surprise.”
“When I was coming up with who to draw next, I was trying to think of what Irish figurehead I should draw and I thought well who in Ireland is more Irish right now than Matt Damon. Stuck out in Dalkey in lockdown and he’s the most famous person in the country. I’ll draw Matt Damon.”
Adding that he had no intention of Matt Damon seeing the portrait – he didn’t even consider it a possibility given the fact that he’s not on social media – the idea to get him to sign it came about after someone suggested he raffle off the portrait for charity.
Anyway, Matt saw the portrait, signed it happily and now it’s being raffled off for charity with all funds raised being donated to Pieta House.
So, how do you get your hands on it (or at least try your darndest to)?
According to Shane, any entry over €20 will be deemed a valid entry and put you in the running to win the portrait. So, essentially all you have to do is donate to the fundraiser (you can do so here) and you could come away with the grand prize. A limited number of prints will also be made available with the proceeds of those going to directly to Pieta House as well.
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