Bentley wondering if he’ll ever get time to finish that watercolour

David Bentley has confessed that he is not certain he will ever put the finishing touches to a panoramic watercolour of Ely Cathedral he began back in 2001, despite the painting’s undoubted potential.

It has been an unsettled period for the 28-year-old, who fell out of favour at Tottenham Hotspur and was sent out on loan to Birmingham City, West Ham United, FC Rostov and Blackburn Rovers over the past two years.

Constantly changing clubs has left Bentley unable to find regular first-team football, or to accurately texture Ely Cathedral’s Galilee Porch.

“Obviously it’s been a disappointing time,” Bentley told Back of the Net. 

“I think everyone’s seen what I can do with regards to wet-brushing the syncopated arches or glazing the Purbeck Marble Shafts, but I’ve got so much more to give. I’m starting to wonder if I’ll ever find a club who’ll give me seven or eight hours a day at my easel.”

Bentley’s last completed work, a 2005 charcoal drawing of Arsene Wenger substituting him during a Carling Cup tie, won widespread plaudits. However, Wenger himself labelled it ‘technically fantastic but lacking maturity’.