Child's play for Belfast artist as he builds Lego Donald Trump

David Turner, who began his career as an artist late in life, struck gold when he started ‘painting’ works of art using children’s toys.

Donald Trump is one of the subjects of his latest collection of Lego portraits which look at famous political figures in their formative years.

The 48-year-old explained: “The images I make, when they’re hanging in a gallery, people think it’s a really thick oil colour. It’s only when they’re four or five feet away they realise it’s Lego.”

As well as President Trump, Mr Turner also portrays Nelson Mandela, Che Guevara, Lenin and Chairman Mao as unpoliticised teens.

He said: “I’m interested in what they were like before they became men. It could be a revolutionary, a president, a prime minister, but it’s finding that image of them before they knew they were going to be politicians, maybe at the age they would have played with Lego. The portraits are meant to be a disarming view of these people.”

Of the 30x30 inch Trump brickwork he said: “It was finished late last week, but I’d been posting updates on Instagram and Facebook and it was getting a lot of attention.”

He said a number of offers have been received for the piece and it looks to have been secured for a substantial sum by a fine art dealer in Belfast on behalf of a client.

Mr Turner said some of his large Lego portraits could fetch up to £5,000.

As well as making Lego portraits of political leaders, David also takes on commissions for mere mortals wanting their own brick likeness.

He explained that he left school with few qualifications and did not study art until he was a mature student.

In the past three years he has moved away from painting and started using children’s media like Lego and Hama beads to construct his art.

Mr Turner said his extensive collection of Lego from childhood gave him a start but added that sourcing bricks in modern times can be costly.

Mr Turner, who lives in Finaghy with his wife Andrea and son Ethan, commented: “Before the political portraits, I used to work autobiographically, so I used to make images of Belfast in my youth growing up on the Donegall Road.

“I used Hama beads on a collection looking at explosions and I’ve also made replica Lego firearms.”

He added: “It’s really been in this past three years that the work I’m doing now has started to take off and get worldwide recognition.

“I’ve shown my work all over the world – across America, London, Dublin, some of my work will be going to Korea and Australia.

“I’m one of those artists you’ll not really hear of in Northern Ireland because my work isn’t cows or cottages.”

Mr Turner is now based in QSS Gallery in Bedford Street having set up the self-sustained Platform Arts group in the city.

He runs www.belfastarts.co.uk, one of the fastest growing artist’s sites in NI.