Joe Lycett's best artistic creations over the years as he unveils his ‘Teletubby Spaff’ vase

Joe Lycett has gained a reputation for being artistically gifted. Dedicated supporters of the Brummie comedian will know he sells his paintings online to fund other creative endeavours - his short film Linda was funded by sales from a painting of King Charles III.

This Wednesday 8 June, Joe took to Instagram to share his latest creation - a vase. Posting to his 1.3 million followers, the Late Night Lycett presenter captioned the snap: “I call this vase I made ‘teletubby spaff’”.

In usual fashion, the creation was well received by Joe’s fans. One user said: “I really like this 👏 I’d buy the spaff vase 🙌”. Another added: “Love it Joe 🙌💖”. It’s clear the Travel Man presenter has a talent for art, but what are his best ever artistic creations? 

In 2018, Joe created ‘Chris’. As the name clearly doesn’t suggest, Chris was a sculpture of a human head, made from clay and a tube of Pringles. According to the Royal Academy of art, Joe sculpted the masterpiece whilst drunk, and submitted it into their summer exhibition. In the application letter, he valued Chris at £10,500,000, much to the confusion of event organisers, who questioned whether he’d made a mistake. In response, the comedian said: “Gosh, did I really put £10,500,500? It should be £12,500,000! Brexit! I recently took it to Bonhams to get it valued – they asked me to leave but I expect the insurance value is £4.99 or the equivalent in Argos vouchers.” Chris was in fact featured in the summer exhibition, much to Joe’s surprise.

This year, an exceptional painting by Joe also made it into the Royal Academy summer exhibition. He shared the news to Instagram last week on 2 June. He wrote in the caption: “Delighted that my piece ‘I DRINK A CRISP, COLD BEER IN A POOL IN LOS ANGELES WHILE GARY LINEKER LOOKS ON IN DISGUST’ has been selected for this year’s @royalacademyarts Summer Exhibition. It’s my first painting to make it and only the second time I’ve been included (the first time was my infamous sculpture CHRIS).” He added: “I can’t wait to see it and for some sour old arts journo to describe it as a ‘waste of paper and paint’.”

One of Joe’s most well received and popular pieces was created last year - a painting of some tropical looking foliage and flowers, overlaid with the word ‘GAY’ in bold, white lettering. The proudly pansexual comedian is active in his contributions to the LGBTQIA+ community, particularly for his stunt aimed at David Beckham to raise awareness for discrimination against gay people in Qatar. He was recently named in the Independent’s Pride List 2023. This painting, entitled ‘Portrait Of Your Dad’ went on sale for a limited 72 hours, but unsurprisingly sold out well before the time was up.

In an interview with It’s Nice That, Joe Lycett spoke on why he enjoys art so much, saying: “I don’t want to be wanky about it, but I just really enjoy making things. I am under no illusion that I’m the best at any of the things I do, but I love trying them. For so long I wouldn’t do things because of the critic in my head saying ‘that’s terrible’, but nothing gets done then. I really want to encourage other people, and myself, to make stuff for the sake of making it.”