Artist John Culshaw reveals new Anfield mural chosen by fans

Artist John Culshaw has unveiled his latest LFC player mural and this time it’s one picked by Reds fans.

John put out a vote on his social media asking supporters who they’d most like to see as the subject of a new Anfield mural.

And there was only one clear winner – Brazilian goalie Alisson.

He’s now completed the huge piece, in collaboration with Liverpool-based digital artist Cally who created a graphic tribute to Alisson’s famous injury time winning goal against West Brom.

John explains: “After I’d painted Luis Diaz as Signing of the Season I wanted to do a Fans Choice so I put it to the vote and it was overwhelming. Alisson got about 90% of the votes!”

Once he’d found a suitable wall, on Pulford Street just off Walton Breck Road near the ground, John got permission from owners William Hill and started work on a design.

“I knew I wanted to do the header, Alisson’s one of the only goalkeepers to have come out and scored a goal in free play so that was definitely a moment that I wanted to paint. The images online of that header weren’t really good enough so I realised it was going to have to be more of a graphic thing.

“I had a try myself but they weren’t what I wanted and I knew Cally had already painted one so I got in touch with him and asked him if he wanted to jump on this mural with me.

“I said if he’d let me use one of his existing images then I would paint it and he said yes, and sent me over the full hi-resolution design for me to work from. He’s another Scouser but I’ve never met him before, we didn’t meet up until we were by the wall and he came down to watch while I painted.

“Even though there’s a lot of detail in the portrait piece, the graphic one actually took longer. The portrait took about six hours whereas I was there all day doing the other one because I was lining everything up and I was working on a ladder so there was a lot of climbing up and down as well, making sure things were in the right place.”

John says he’s really happy with the end result and the response has been amazing.

“I did feel a little bit more pressure to get this right because it was chosen by the fans, and to be honest if I’d have voted I’d have picked Alisson too because he’s the best keeper in the world and we’re lucky to have him.”

Reds will get their first matchday look at the artwork when the derby game is at Anfield a week on Saturday and John is likely to get plenty of social media mentions.

“Fans do love having their photos taken with the murals, and I get tagged from all over the world, as far as China, by people who’ve been over here to matches.”

Anyone wanting a pic with Alisson might have to do it this season, though, because John’s got plans to paint over him next summer.

“These are limited edition murals so they’re not going to stay long. Next year I think I’m going to have to go for Van Dijk, he hasn’t had a portrait yet and because he’s captain now I’ll probably paint him next. I won’t be doing any more of these self-funded ones until next summer but then I’m going to reuse the same walls, so I’ll be painting over Diaz and Alisson. I’d rather have something new there every year than people get bored of my work.”