THE artist behind the McCoo paintings is to officially open a new gallery in Glasgow next week as part of an international expansion plan.
Steven Brown, whose paintings are sought by celebrities including Sam Bailey and Jai McDowall, is opening his first premises outside Ayr where in two years his store has seen turnover reach £22 million.
The Silverburn centre gallery will showcase the high-end work of the artist, who saw his Oor Wullie and Big Tam McCoo sell to an unnamed buyer for £40,000 this week.
Mr Brown, 46, above with Lizzie McCoo, only took up painting seriously relatively recently after a career in retail until 2012 and after suffering two heart attacks and then depression.
He said he was astonished by the critical and commercial success of his work.
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He said: "When you think of a hobby you love doing and then you can make a living at it, plus the fact that folk around the world love it, it is just incredible.
“It’s worldwide. The gallery has already sold five pieces to Australia and four pieces to Canada.
"The gallery is more the higher level stuff and it goes all over the world.
“It is crazy."
The success of the Ayr store since it opened in 2016 helped prompt expansion.
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He said: "I’m still in awe of the amazing journey I’ve been on for the past two years.
"We recently held pop up events in four of Scotland’s biggest shopping centres, and the reaction we had was simply wonderful.
"Now, having a presence in Silverburn will give us the opportunity to meet lots more people and introduce them to McCoo magic."
He said: "America is just about go boom and then we are going to work in Europe, we’ve got Canada to open up and we’ve also got Australia to open up."
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