Kirby & West - The Dairy On Your Doorstep

May 5th 2008

Graham Smith, managing director of dairy delivery firm Kirby and West, is now the proud owner of a quirky one-off oil painting which, unlike most original paintings, will never go into publication as limited edition prints at the artist's special request.

Not only that, but artist Caroline Shotton, who recently visited Leicester when an exhibition of her work was staged at Trident Galleries on Allandale Road, has even renamed the painting in tribute to Graham and his business.

Graham and wife Sharon became enamoured with Shotton's work after seeing it exhibited at the gallery 2 years ago. Shotton specialises in painting cows in a number of quirky poses and, unable to resist the connection between cows and his own business, they have since bought 4 of her prints.

But it was ‘Big Bro', a one-off oil painting, that became Graham's real pride and joy and has hung in his Kirby and West office ever since.

So when Graham discovered the gallery was to host a Shotton exhibition, he volunteered Kirby and West's services as sponsor and took his own pictures along for the artist to sign.

"It was good to meet Caroline and see the brains behind works like ‘The Great Moosters' collection and ‘Herd It Through The Grapevine," he said. "As a fun promotion, we'd organised for someone to dress up as ‘Kirby the Cow' and have a go at painting humans, and arranged for Caroline to have ride to the gallery in a specially-decorated electric milk float.

"She appreciated the gestures and her own fun-loving nature really shone through. She was more than happy to put a personalised message on Big Bro, but when she discovered where the painting hung, and its significance to Kirby and West, she decided to rename it ‘Big Boss'.

"He's now become a sort of mascot for the firm and it's an honour to know that his image is exclusively ours."