NOT many can say they are the personal artist to Real Madrid’s elite.
And only one can say that they all love his incredible statues that pay homage to Disney favourite, Mickey Mouse.
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Colombian artist Juan Pablo Restrepo Mejía is making a killing from his sculptures that start at around £8,000.
Luka Modric, Antonio Rudiger and Federico Valverde are just some of the Los Blancos stars who have commissioned Juan Pablo to create art work for them.
While boxing legend Canelo Alvarez wanted a gold-plated piece for his Mexican home.
It was a journey that stemmed from his artistic background, athough he could have taken a different journey.
How we got here
Juan Pablo played football in his homeland, alongside James Rodriguez and Juan Fernando Quintero at Envigado’s youth teams.
But he was at university when he realised his calling in a discussion with his professor, who asked him what he wanted to do.
He revealed he didn’t want to follow a career in his chosen degree of civil engineering.
Instead, he wanted to be an artist. It was something Juan Pablo had grown up around all his life – coming from a family of painters who taught him the way.
He told Marca: “I learned to wash brushes, the best classical and abstract techniques, sculpture, from framing a frame, painting it, sanding, filling a background.”
First footballer who bought from him
Spain international and Real Madrid left-back Fran Garcia was the first LaLiga star to show an interest in Juan Pablo’s work.
Then Marcos Llorente asked the sculptor to create a piece to sit in the entrance of his home.
It was through Llorente, who has since established his name at Real’s cross town rivals Atletico, that Juan Pablo became Real Madrid’s artist in residence.
“He’s a great brother, he was the link that brought us closer to the rest of the boys on his team,” he said.
Soon, after seeing the art at the club’s Valdebebas training ground, everyone wanted a piece – with prices starting at around the £8,000 mark.
“He showed them the work he had done and we ended up getting to Luka Modric, who is one of my idols,” Juan Pablo continued.
” Luka, (Andriy) Lunin, (Federico) Valverde, Lucas Vázquez, (Antonio) Rüdiger, they all have a piece of work.
“I made sure their work was very personal, I chose the colours for each one that they most identified with.”
Amusingly, when France midfielder Eduardo Camavinga saw Fran Garcia’s art work at the training ground, he wanted one too… but, he had one hilarious request.
Camavinga was passing by and said, ‘Wow! What is that? Fran García’s. I want one too, but I want it to be super colourful. Mine has to be the most colorful of all,” Juan Pablo laughed.
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Players have to be patient for the pieces
Juan Pablo is inspired by Mickey Mouse and has created versions of Pinocchio too.
He began painting, but soon became intrigued with the idea of sculpting.
However, footballers expecting a quick turnaround on their orders will be disappointed.
“The manufacturing time depends a lot on the material. I work with bronze, carbon fibre and resin,” he said.
“In bronze it takes me three months.”
The more colourful pieces can take up to years to create. Juan Pablo explained: “The creation of the work, the idea as such, takes me about two and a half years.
“Camavinga will have to wait six months or so. But I already told him and he told me ‘I wait, but colourful, colourful.'”
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In terms of Walt Disney’s royalties for his work, Juan Pablo revealed: “Each country can have a permit with the brand. They didn’t know it was going to be scaled that way, but I did the right things and I have the brand’s permit.”
And that’s not all…
Alongside his work for football’s elite, Juan Pablo can also count Mexican boxer Canelo Alvarez as one of his clients.
The middleweight icon, naturally, wanted gold-plated pieces made.
His work with Alvarez also led him to work with the WBA, who Juan Pablo is now the official artist for.
“Every time there is a world champion they use one of my pieces to give them a detail and I am also in charge of making the legendary belts of the boxing organisation,” Juan Pablo revealed.
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Canelo has even invited his new favourite artist round to his ranch in Mexico to decorate parts of his home.
You can bet it will all be tastefully done.