Ché Caines is one artist who can paint under pressure. The 24-year-old Bermudian was commissioned to create an official portrait of former Premier Ewart Brown to hang on the walls of the Cabinet building.

He wanted to make sure he got all the fine details exactly right — the finishing touches were not complete until the day before it was set to be revealed to media.

“I was still painting it while I was listening on the radio about the unveiling,” he said.

“To finish it, I had to stay up working until 4am and dropped off the portrait to the ex-Premier at his house one day while heading to work.

“Then I got it back and had to do a few quick touch-ups. I returned the final piece a day before the public unveiling.”

Mr Caines, a qualifying architect with Cooper Gardner, said the portrait was a project two years in the making.

Back when he was still at art and design university, Central Saint Martins, in London, he was asked to create the piece.

“One of my friends’ mothers was friends with Ewart Brown. She had seen some of my work and passed a word on,” he said.

“Eventually, it led to me getting an e-mail address and reaching out to him. When he replied I was really excited. It was also a little bit overwhelming. I thought, ‘this is crazy! I am talking to the ex-Premier and I’m about to do a picture for him’.

“Thankfully, it worked out. He agreed and sent me his photo to work with.”

Mr Caines spent more than a month on the portrait, only to find out it was too big to be hung in the Cabinet Office.

“After that we agreed I would finish university and then come back to recreate it in between work and my free time,” he explained.

“I went back to the drawing board. This time it took about three weeks because it was similar to the original, but more difficult.

“It was probably the hardest thing I’ve done in my time as an artist to try and replicate an original painting.

“Before when I was working on it, I had all the time in the world to get it right, whereas this time I had a full-time job and was under a lot of pressure.”

In the end, Mr Caines was really proud of the result. Dr Brown was also impressed.

“He loved it when he first saw it,” Mr Caines said. “He just looked at it and at first didn’t say anything to me, and then told me he thought it was amazing.”

The artist worked with London-based videographer Elliott Evans to create a short time-lapse video based on the high-profile project.

Mr Caines has been interested in art since he was a child. While in primary school at Gilbert, he took art classes and would draw a lot in his spare time.

“My family would always have colouring competitions and I’d always win,” he said.

“I went from just colouring like lots of children do, to creating my own drawings.

“My parents would then photocopy my pictures and then everyone would colour those in.

“That’s when I pretty much realised I was good at it.”

In his adolescent years, he starting working on more detailed drawings. Then once he got started with portraits, he never stopped.

“People are probably the most challenging thing you can draw and I like that challenge,” he said.

“The eyes are one of the most difficult parts to get right because that’s the feature that captures the real essence of the person. If that’s off then the whole thing is off.

“My first portrait didn’t come out as nice as the ones I do today, but I was still happy about it at the time and just kept it up.”

Mr Caines said he decided to pursue a career in architecture because of its strong links to art.

“In high school I was thinking art would be a difficult field to excel in financially. You have to have really good contacts and links and have to keep clients in order to make a living.

“Architecture was the closest thing and I absolutely love it. I like that you can sculpt, draw or paint your vision for a space.

“Then there’s also the feeling you get when it’s finished and you see how your work has progressed from paper.”

After getting his master’s degree and passing his exams, he hopes to become a qualified architect. In the meantime, he is basking in the glory of his recent fame.

“Around seven people have contacted me recently to do their portraits,” he said. “That was on top of a waiting list I already had.

“I’ve also entered the Charman Prize at Masterworks gallery.

“I’ve never really entered a professional art competition, so it will be exciting to see how my work fares against other artists.”