Kettering store's 'superhero' key workers thanked with brilliant paintings

When you're paying for your shopping at Kettering's Morrisons you might look up and see some new art.

That's because Lower Street store worker Daniel Kelly decided on a novel way to thank some of his 'superhero' pandemic colleagues - by painting portraits of them.

A total of 11 brilliant paintings are now on display near the tills after the 29-year-old spent February and March painstakingly turning pictures he had taken into the pieces of art.

He came up with the idea after seeing other artists painting NHS heroes during the first national lockdown.

Daniel, who lives in Kettering, said: "I wanted to do something to say thanks for our superheroes at work."

He ended up painting pictures of staff from different departments, including the bakery, office and picking, taking between 90 minutes and three hours to paint each one.

Daniel has been interested in art from a young age and completed his art GCSE a year early at Ise Community College - being named as one of the top 10 students in the country by exam body Edexcel.

He then went to university to study painting and drawing and now works at the Kettering supermarket.

After starting work at 3am each day he would return home work on his paintings of his colleagues.

Daniel said: "It's been tough but very rewarding.

"We've all been putting in 110 per cent and working extra hours and this has created a buzz in the store."

As part of the scheme staff donated money to children's cancer charity CLIC Sargent, with the store also selling postcard prints of them to workers to raise extra funds.