VIP guests were invited to Yellows Bar & Grill at Carrow Road on Tuesday evening, with local artist Nick Chinnery showing off his 101 fabulous paintings of Norwich and its famous landmarks and buildings.
Nick, a self-taught artist who bought his first paint set in 2017 for £3.95, started painting the watercolours when he was shielding during lockdown. He admits, after a hard time, it gave him some focus and motivation and he was amazed by the response that he got.
Speaking to canaries.co.uk, Nick said: “I had had a tough year and decided that I needed to do something to sort of get that motivation and drive rather than feeling down all the time. So, I posted a few pictures on the Secret Norwich Facebook page and I started to get quite a few likes and comments.
“People in Norwich were thanking me for bringing the city back to life through what was hard time for everybody, and I really fed off their enthusiasm and that gave me a massive to carry on each day.”
He then did a piece for ITV Anglia, which Norwich City majority shareholders Delia Smith and Michael Wynn-Jones saw.
“In lockdown we did watch quite a lot of television and we watched the local television every evening because they were very good in telling us what was happening,” explained Delia.
“One evening they did an item on this local artist in Norwich who had done a painting for every day of lockdown, 101 days. When I saw the art come up on screen – I do love art anyway and I do buy paintings – I just thought wow, that is fantastic.
“It is an incredible story and the next day I said to my assistant that we just had to get hold of Nick and express an interest in buying the paintings for Yellows. We were refurbishing the Yellows and we all knew that we needed some art for the walls.”
Now adorning the walls of Yellows, Nick said it was a proud moment for him.
He added: “I am blown away every time that I come here. I’m astounded because things like that don’t happen to people like me. It is a real pinch me moment, every single day.”
Yellows Bar & Grill is located at Carrow Road and is open 11am to 11pm Tuesday to Saturday.