THEY have been invited into the homes of the likes of Steven Gerrard, Wayne Rooney, James Milner and Rio Ferdinand to create bespoke artwork.

Husband and wife team Neil and Fiona Osborne have also brought smiles to youngsters during tough times when they created a Star Wars themed book bench for Manchester Children’s Hospital.

And the Grappenhall village couple’s Wallace and Gromit sculpture was selected to be sold as a figurine as part of Gromit Unleashed, a charity art trail for Bristol Children’s Hospital.

Suffice to say that Neil and Fiona’s work – under the name One Red Shoe – is as varied as it is rewarding.

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The pair specialise in murals but Neil said, as big Wallace and Gromit and Aardman Studios fans, Gromit Unleashed was one of their favourite projects.

The former Penketh High student said: “Everyone involved was lovely and we got to meet the likes of Peter Lord, David Sproxton and Nick Park and have a wander around Aardman Studios too. Great fun.

“We’ve had sculpture designs commissioned for Shaun the Sheep and also a Charles the First themed gnome sculpture displayed at Hampton Court where we got a behind the scenes look around the grounds and palace.”

Recently, the couple have been pleased to have had their profile raised with a public mural in their hometown.

Their artwork can be found up the stairs at the entrance to Warrington Museum and Art Gallery as part of last year’s revamp.

It features Lewis Carroll’s Alice and a nod to some of the curiosities that can be found at the historic museum.

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Neil said: “I couldn’t be more pleased to get that job especially as I went to Warrington Museum as a kid myself. We used to take our son Django there as well.”

Fiona, who is currently illustrating a self-help book for teenagers with Warrington author Paul McGee, added: “He’s 13 now and helped us on that job. So that was brilliant as he got to see why we’re so tired at the end of the day!

“He learnt about the importance of multiple coats of paint and being neat and we got to see school groups viewing the art while they were going up to the museum and their comments about it.”

Contributing to childhood memories is something the couple do a lot of as they are often commissioned for bedroom murals.

But their work can vary hugely from a one-day job to about six weeks when they assisted artist Gary Drostle with his Roman Amphitheatre project in Chester.

As well as the sense of satisfaction from seeing the fruits of their labour in front of their eyes, Neil and Fiona reckon seeing an image go from a design to a full scale artwork conjures up a little magic too.

Fiona, aged 43, said: “There is a last brushstroke and you finish something, which has taken weeks to design and paint, it feels like it has just appeared.”

Neil said: “I think if you’ve done a nice design it feels as if it’s always been there.”

Fiona added: “I think that is why public art is more satisfying. If you do a mural in a kid’s bedroom you’ll never see it again but with the likes of the mural in the museum you see its impact over a long period.”

They hope it leads to more public art opportunities on their doorstep.

Neil, aged 45, said: “When we started out public artwork was fairly restricted. It still is in certain areas but it has exploded in cities now.

“But at the time that kind of work wasn’t about so we ended up more in schools, restaurants and houses.

“The tide is turning – people are even looking at art for their shop front. I think it’s an area that Warrington could explore a little bit more. There is definitely scope for it.”

Neil and Fiona, who live in a wooden house they designed themselves, are also celebrating 20 years of working together.

They have been a couple since they were in their teens but at that point Fiona’s plan was to do children’s books and so she did a degree in illustration.

She decided to change paths thanks to the snowball effect of a notice she placed in a post office down the road.

Fiona said: “I put a little advert in there saying I could do portraits and paintings and murals.

“I was asked to do some work in the Parr Hall and someone asked me to do some paints effects because it was popular at that time.

“I ended up being recommended to lots of other people and it kind of spread like that.”

Neil did an art history course but at first he worked for his dad who had TV shops in Grappenhall, Culcheth and Penketh.

He said: “It all came together because it was around that time I was looking for a change and I brought some business and management experience.

“Everyone says to us: ‘I couldn’t work with my partner as I would argue’ but we work well as a team.

“We’re never fighting over the work. We collaborate on the design work and then we divide off the other tasks so if I deal with the customers, Fiona deals with the artwork.”

For more information about One Red Shoe visit oneredshoe.design