Roger Taylor has brought an artistic twist to Hanley Market after agreeing to draw customers' portraits. Alan Cookman went along to get his bearded features put on canvas

THEY told me that one of the artist's best known works is a painting of the A500.

It was on display in Terry's Bar and I could see it was very good.

But I wasn't sure that I wanted to sit for someone whose forte is roads.

Would he be able to resist incorporating white lines into my portrait, or having my eyes change from red to red-and-amber and then to green?

Fortunately, Roger Taylor is no one-trick pony. He does landscapes, townscapes and portraits too.

You can see some of his pictures in Terry's Bar in Hanley Market during November, and they include a very fine painting of a farmhouse in Provence.

Normally, though, you'd be looking at Hanley Market a long time before you were reminded of Montmartre.

But why shouldn't a popular market 'caff' provide a platform for culture? A bustling meeting place, Terry's Bar is the ideal place to grab a bacon buttie, a cup of freshly-brewed tea and an eyeful of art. In deference to the other customers, we agreed that I should remain fully clothed for the picture.

Like Cromwell, I instructed the artist to capture me "warts and all," but without going so far as to insert warts where none existed.

The 31-year-old artist, from Meir, who also designs websites, had chosen to execute the portrait in charcoal, and he said the sitting shouldn't take more than 30 minutes.

I cleared away the menu and condiments and struck a pose with which I thought I'd be comfortable for half-an-hour.

Relaxing at a table, my right arm resting on the back of the seat, I gazed into the middle distance wearing an expression which was somewhere between expansive and distinguished. Extinguished, perhaps.

This became difficult to maintain as my right arm seized up and I began to feel the onset of a crick in my neck. "Not long now," said Roger, allowing a short break to stretch my arms.

When we resumed I noticed that passers-by were pausing with their shopping to look over the artist's shoulder.

I tried to read their faces for clues as to the quality of the likeness, and wondered how to react if the end product bore no relation to me whatsoever.

I was reminded of Tony Hancock, the would-be artist in The Rebel, telling landlady Irene Handl that the picture she's looking at is a self-portrait. "Who of?" she says.

The onlookers seemed impressed, though, and when I was finally vouchsafed a peek, I was rather impressed.

I do look as if I'm giving someone outside the image the evil eye, but the man in the picture is emphatically me and not Ricky Tomlinson.

Roger's paintings are on show in Terry's Bar for the rest of November, and in future space will be made available for the works of a different artist every month.