The title “King of Painters, Painter of Kings” is not one Andrew Vicari chose for himself – it came courtesy of Paris Match magazine. Never being one for false modesty, it is a title he justifiably relishes.

Much as old masters such as Holbein or Van Dyck attracted the lucrative patronage of European monarchs in their day, so Vicari has become court artist to the richest and most powerful crowned head of the Middle East.

He wanted to become an artist from the day he won £10 in a local competition in Port Talbot and went on to be the youngest ever student at the prestigious Slade School in London. There while, Francis Bacon nurtured his emerging talent, he also met the celebrated Welsh artist Augustus John.

John insisted that should Vicari draw – rather than paint - his portrait. It was a pivotal moment for Vicari whose accomplished draughtsmanship would open to the door to many lucrative engagements in the years ahead. It also makes him the creative antithesis of the conceptual “New British Artists” for whom he has less than no time.

In Saudi Arabia his pictures fill three museums -the fruits of a series of major commissions from the King and government. During the Gulf War he travelled to the battlefront to paint 255 different canvasses forming an official record of the conflict. He keeps one of General Schwarzkopf’s hats as a memento.

In China he was only the fourth Western artist to be invited to exhibit by the authorities –following in the distinguished footsteps of Rodin, Miro and Chagall. He has won the “Prix Europeen des Beaux Arts” and one of his works has replaced the portrait of Karl Marx in the city hall at St Petersburg.

Vicari recently bought Picasso’s old villa in the south of France and plans to turn it into an art school.

He managed to find time to paint an inspirational mural in the “unlucky” dressing room at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium but had to say ‘no’ to Saddam Hussain. Unlike the former President of Iraq, Vicari retains his title.