Man United legend Eric Cantona stuns artists at Manchester studio in surprise visit

Artists at a studio in Manchester were left stunned when football legend Eric Cantona paid a surprise visit. The Manchester United icon, also known as a philosopher, poet, actor, musician and artist, made a flying visit to the city on Tuesday.

He headed to GRIT Studios in Manchester city centre at the Great Northern Warehouse. The reason for his visit was a catch up with renowned Manchester fine artist Michael Browne, who has famously painted Eric's portrait over the years.

The duo collaborated on an exhibition together last year at the National Football Museum, From Moss Side to Marseille. And they and are now working on a top secret new project together.

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Artists at GRIT Studios were cracking on with their artwork when the famous visitor arrived late morning on Tuesday after jetting in from Paris.

Staying for over an hour, Eric took time to meet a number of artists, and was given a tour by GRIT Co-Founder John Macaulay. Eric was suitably impressed with their work, and was genuinely enthused at the sense of community within the local grassroots art scene.

John, a United fan who has seen United play in 25 countries, before setting up Art Battle MCR and GRIT Studios with his wife Sophie was overwhelmend to meet the man known to Reds as the King.

He said: "It’s full circle for me having watched Eric play all over the world, it’s a true honour that he’s flown in to see our talented artists.

"Artists spent time chatting with Eric, talking through their creative practise, including mosaic artist Francis Thorrington, plein air artist Sketch MCR, painters Jodie Silverman, Helen Davies and Sophie Macaulay, and woodworker Gus Riddell."

Artist Francis, who is also a huge Reds fan, said: "I couldn’t stop smiling the whole time" after Cantona described his work as wonderful.

Musician Eric also looked at home when he picked up and started strumming one of Chris Polin’s hand made guitars - handcrafted from exotic woods with hundreds of hours of work put into the piece.

Eric was last in Manchester performing on stage to hundreds of fans with his one man musical show, Cantona Sings Eric.

His final message to the artists at GRIT was that it was refreshing to see a place where "art was for everyone" not just the elite.

Michael is sworn to secrecy on the project he's currently working on with Cantona, but has teased that we should expect some big announcements in the coming weeks.

However, If you want to follow in Eric’s footsteps by visiting the talented artists at GRIT Studios Manchester, they are hosting an Open Day on Saturday, November 16 between 2pm and 6pm at the Great Northern Warehouse, just off Deansgate.