Liam Stokes-Massey

August Award

Liam Stokes-Massey
Liam has turned what was a hobby, drawing and painting into a full time business. Amazingly, Liam didn’t take art as a subject in school! Liam has used his natural talent to create wonderful pieces of work.
It all started when he was working in a call centre in Cardiff, doodling between calls. Seeing his work, one of his colleagues brought a photo of her daughter to work and asked him to draw her- this was Liam’s first commission!
His artwork carried on being a hobby until 2014, when it became a fulltime job, working from home, using a large drawing board, he moved to an art space for 3-4 years, upstairs next to Waterstones, then in 2019, to his Shepherds Hut in Ty Pawb.
Liam branched out drawing cars, kids, dogs, buildings and his big passion football artworks.
In 2016, his business took off. When Wales were playing in the European Cup, Liam drew a picture of Gareth Bale in pencil, with Gareth’s hands forming a heart sign around the Wales badge on the shirt, with the heart coloured in red.
Liam sold over 100 individually hand painted pictures of this.
Just over a year ago, Liam began talks with Richard Watkin, owner of The Fat Boar, in Wrexham, discussing how they could paint a mural on the side of the premises. The mural was designed by Liam and Adam Pritchard, to celebrate Wales World Cup qualification. Liam worked out what went where on a large grid on his Ipad, then super imposed it on the wall.
This summer, Liam has created a stunning new mural on the wall of the Fat Boar, featuring @wrexhamafc striker @paulmullin, also promoting @yourspace charity, which is an activity and social club for young people and adults who are on the Autistic Spectrum.
Liam, being a huge football fan, says his favourite pieces are his football related works, especially when the players interact with his work. During last year’s World Cup, a relative bought two wall charts created by Liam and sent them to Gareth Bales’ house in LA. Also, famous footballer Kieffer Moore, has a print of on of Liam’s paintings in his living room.
All Liam’s paintings and drawings are sold on Etsy, Pencilcraftsman and you can contact him for commissions on Facebook @pencilcraftsman.
Well done Liam, incredible work!