A WEST Belfast artist who completed a portrait of the late Martin McGuinness for display at Stormont has unveiled a new exhibition.
'Special People, Special Places' by Tony Bell has opened at the Cultúrlann centre on Falls Road and runs until January 25 2019.
It aims to showcase recognisable landscapes and a range of people from across the community who "took great risk and dedicated themselves to bringing about the changes we see today in language, culture and politics".
Among those featured in the collection of acrylic and oil portraits are former SDLP leader John Hume, former PUP leader David Ervine and Baroness May Blood.
Others featured include Fr Alec Reid and Rev Harold Good, who were independent witnesses who oversaw the decommissioning of IRA arms in 2005, football icon George Best and Belfast boxer Carl Frampton.
Mr Bell's high-profile portrait of Martin McGuinness was unveiled in Parliament Buildings in Belfast in March – just over a year after the death of the former IRA commander turned Stormont leader.
It hangs in the same corridors as a painting of the late Ian Paisley, former DUP leader – the man Mr McGuinness struck an unlikely friendship with as they led Northern Ireland's power-sharing executive together.
