Shany Hagan's King Charles painting to represent UK at exhibition

Shany Hagan, who has lived in York for more than 20 years, had eye surgery during the Covid-19 lockdowns and decided to start painting again, despite not picking a paintbrush up for 33 years.

She has raised thousands of pounds for charity by auctioning her paintings of celebrities for good causes and her story caught the attention of Alight Media who have electronic billboards across the capital and they want to display Shany's painting of King Charles alongside his parents in London on coronation day.

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Now, Shany has announced that her painting of King Charles has been chosen to go on show in Barcelona in the "amazing" Art Tunnel display - featuring work from more than 800 artists.

Shany said: "My painting is to be placed in the one of biggest art exhibitions in the world, with 800 artists from 38 countries around the world exhibiting their work.

"My King Charles painting was the chosen artwork. I will be going out to Barcelona on the opening day of this amazing event.

"I'm so very excited and proud of my achievements in the past few years."

Shany Hagan, left, with a piece she painted in honour of the RAF (Image: Supplied)

Other paintings in Shany's series included one of late BBC television presenter Harry Gration which was painted with coffee and food colouring and film star Johnny Depp painted was painted with red wine and will be donated to men’s domestic violence charity. 

She has also painted actor Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson using tea which will be going to Sheffield hospital's children’s ward. 

And British actor Benedict Cumberbatch saw his painting and described it as "lovely" in a social media post - this is also being donated to a homeless charity.

As previously reported by The Press, some of Shany's work, featuring well-known celebrities such as these, goes on to be sold at auctions to raise vital funds for charities such as Parkinson's UK and children’s cancer charities.

Shany said she has raised more than £317,000 for over 50 charities in both the UK and USA - and painted for over 40 celebrities.

Shany said: "I began to paint only thinking it would be a hobby - how wrong was I? Within two weeks of posting my work on social media I started to my amazement receive commissions from all over the world and the biggest stars in the world began to contact me."

Shany Hagan with Mel B and a previous portrait painted by the artist (Image: UGC)

In March, Shany announced she will be painting a portrait of singer Mel B for her to sign so a couple can auction it off to raise funds for their baby, Ada - who was born with a giant cyst occupying a third of her brain.