Brad Pitt Learns To Paint, Honored By Portrait Painted By His Art Teacher [Video]

Brad Pitt and his lovely wife, Angelina Jolie, never fail to attract stories in the media, but this is a rather more unusual one. Reportedly, a while back, a Northern Irish artist received a request to teach Brad Pitt how to paint and ended up painting an impressive portrait of the Hollywood star.

Brad Pitt is reportedly thrilled and honored to appear in a portrait painted by Colin Davidson, the artist in question, whose work has been seen in shows worldwide.

Davidson himself is a former pupil of the Methodist College in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He graduated from the University of Ulster in 1991 with a First Class Honors Degree in Design and is now a renowned portrait artist. Back in 2012, he received a request from Brad Pitt to take him on as a protégé and teach him how to paint.

In an interview with Eamonn Mallie on Irish TV (included below), Davidson said he was forced to say no to the popular Hollywood award-winning actor because he simply “wasn’t a teacher.”

According to the Belfast Telegraph, Davidson was originally contacted by an attorney from the U.S. in May 2012, who told him he had a client who wanted to learn how to paint. It turned out that client was none other than Brad Pitt.

“He said he had seen one of my paintings in the Royal Academy and they thought they would like to ask me if I would teach this client to paint.”

Davidson’s first reaction to the request was to say no, explaining, “Look, I don’t really teach, I’m not comfortable teaching.”

He politely declined to teach Pitt, suggesting he rather find a suitable teacher in London while he was staying there.

A few months later, Davidson received yet another call from Pitt’s attorney and this time the caller was far more persistent. The attorney stressed they would very much like the portrait artist to take them up on the offer and, as a result, Davidson agreed to do so. Since then, he admits how much he enjoyed both meeting with and teaching Brad Pitt.

Davidson said that Pitt appears to “shun the limelight” and that he “loves any opportunity to be a normal guy,” adding that they actually had a great time working together.

Artist @colin_davidson on painting Brad Pitt’s portrait – Sunday 10pm – on ‘Eamonn Mallie Meets’ @irishtv Sky191. pic.twitter.com/PQqnzjtfyI

— Eamonn Mallie (@EamonnMallie) November 13, 2015

Davidson is well known for his large-scale portrait paintings of famous people and has reportedly painted Michael Longley, Seamus Heaney, and musician Mark Knopfler in the past. Knopfler can be seen posing with his portrait in the image below.

Saying his pupil, Brad Pitt, had “real potential,” Davidson said that while working with Pitt, teaching him to paint, he asked him how he would feel about posing for a portrait.

Pitt told Davidson that sitting for a portrait would be an honor. As the painting was made shortly after the Hollywood actor finished filming World War Z, the work shows Pitt looking long-haired and a little disheveled — not quite the groomed and handsome actor we normally see in the media. Take a closer look at the painting below.

My portrait of Brad Pitt, from 2013, is on display @NPG Washington DC. Open today 11.30am – 7.00pm. Happy #LaborDay! pic.twitter.com/0OEGO2F7H3

— Colin Davidson (@colin_davidson) September 7, 2015

The portrait of Brad Pitt now joins a host of other large portrait paintings created by Davidson. According to the interview in the video below, the Pitt’s portrait will soon be on display in the Smithsonian museum.

It seems Davidson is not finished with Brad Pitt, however, as he is now working on another portrait showing the award-winning actor with a shorter, cleaner hairstyle, similar to that seen in the photo below, taken at the recent opening night gala premiere of Jolie and Pitt’s film By the Sea.

While there is no artwork currently on display by Brad Pitt himself, a permanent exhibition of Davidson’s work is available at the Lyric Theater in Belfast. His work has, in 2011, 2012, and 2013, been exhibited in the BP Portrait Award at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Davidson reportedly won the Visitors’ Choice Award back in 2012.

The full interview on Irish TV can be seen in the video below.

Eamonn Mallie Meets from Eamonn Mallie on Vimeo.

In other news related to Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, their recently released film By the Sea is currently receiving mixed reviews in the media. As reported by the Inquisitr, Pitt was recently interviewed about the film and asked what it was like to work with Jolie as his boss. He said that he enjoyed the experience and “trusted her with his life.”

[Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images Entertainment]