Making Del Boy an NFT

Throughout my childhood and way into adult life I’ve been a fan of David Jason, in particular the UK comedy classic ‘Only Fools and Horses’, although my earliest memory of Sir David White OBE (David Jason) was as Granville in ‘Open All Hours’ which despite the obvious comedy references challenging me due to my young age I found incredibly entertaining.

Sir David was born in Edmonton, London, in February 1940. He is one of England’s most famous, versatile and talented actors. The incredibly wide range of characters he’s played leaves me with extreme talent envy, not that I’m an actor, but to be able to achieve so much and have such a positive impact on so many people is truly why he deserves prominent accolade.

Before I started painting David Jason as an NFT I had to learn a few more things about him as a subject, as a lifelong fan I thought I knew quite a lot but after a considerable time researching I found out some incredible facts, so I thought I’d share a few.

He loves animals, and he’s actually a patron of a UK registered charity that works to help the conservation of sharks worldwide called the Shark Trust.

He visited Camp Bastian in Afghanistan during the war and spent time entertaining and talking with the troops, particularly with those that were responsible for clearing IED’s, he went on to present the Pride of Britain award to the counter IED task force

He had his first, and only child at the age of 61, Gill Hinchcliffe (his girlfriend) gave birth to his daughter Sophie Mae in 2001

David has an older brother, actor Arthur White, they actually appeared together in the crime drama A Touch of Frost. He also had a twin brother who sadly died during childbirth.

David Jason actually provided voiceovers for a number of children’s cartoons, including Count Duckula, The BFG, Victor and Hugo, and even The Wind in the Willows

When I decided to paint Sir David I had a huge amount of his played personas to choose from, and indeed just him, as himself, I was torn but the sheer joy I experienced watching Del Boy for practically my entire life, it had to be Del, I had the sound of ‘Play it cool Trigger’ bouncing around my head the entire time, and the moment he auctioned the watch found in the depths of the housing estate garage playing through my mind with every layer of brush strokes.