Artist Peter Howson has told an audience in Edinburgh how pop legend David Bowie once fell asleep while modelling for a portrait.
The Glasgow-based painter, 65, said the pop icon dozed off while posing for him in his studio, and fell off his plinth.
He said the Starman singer, who died in 2016, tore his shirt and ended up on the floor.
Howson, whose retrospective at the City Art Centre in Market Street closed last week, said: “David Bowie came to the studio. I did a drawing of him. I asked him to pose for me so he said ‘fine’. He took off his coat and I put him on a plinth and he fell asleep.
“He fell asleep as he was posing, fell off the plinth and ripped his shirt. It was quite a weird feeling to have Bowie, this godlike creature, lying on the floor.”
Howson met Bowie after the musician bought one of his Bosnian war paintings at an exhibition in London. He later invited the pop icon, who became a supporter, to sit for him.
Howson, who always works to music, added that when Bowie visited his studio he had browsed his collection, adding: “He was looking for his own CD, but he couldn’t find it.”
He said: “I play quite a variety of music, mainly classical but it could be anything from Bob Dylan to Engelbert Humperdink.
“Classical-wise it’s mainly renaissance church music or Bach. Bach sends me into a different world altogether.
“In the studio I get to be in a state almost like ecstasy really, it’s an amazing feeling. The music does affect me, and it affects my work.”
The biggest ever retrospective of his work, “When the Apple Ripens: Peter Howson at 65”, closed last week. The exhibition, which included one of his portraits of Bowie, was visited by more than 25,000 people during its four month run at Edinburgh’s City Art Centre.
Howson said he was now “moving on to other things”, including commissioned work.
