A MELBOURNE artist is buzzing after Californian rap icon Ice Cube took an interest in his unique work and asked to share it with his massive social media network.

Mentone artist Keelan Ashton-Bell has a knack for pop culture portraiture. Picture: Paul Loughnan

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MENTONE artist Keelan Ashton-Bell is buzzing after Californian rap icon Ice Cube took an interest in his unique work.

The 30-year-old works as a freelance painter, and pays the bills with his job as a landscaper.

Ashton-Bell specialises in portraits of pop culture identities, which he sketches and paints onto skateboard decks and plywood.

“I do a lot of sporting figures, actors — the main thing I wanted to do is to tell the story of that person by a single look,” he said.

Ashton-Bell was working on a portrait of hip-hop megastar Ice Cube, which had been commissioned by a friend, when Cube’s promotional team got in touch to ask if they could share the piece through the rapper’s massive social media network.

Ice Cube performs at the 2016 Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival Weekend 2. Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images for Coachella
Needless to say, Ashton-Bell jumped at the opportunity for worldwide exposure.

“It’s a big deal,” he said.

“It made my day, I can tell you that much.”

It has been a big few weeks for the young painter, who gets married this weekend, and is off on his honeymoon next week.

Ashton-Bell studied illustration straight out of high school, and his profile as an artist has been growing rapidly over the past few years.

His latest subject, Ice Cube, rose to fame as a founding member of gangsta rap group NWA, which was profiled last year in the biopic Straight Outta Compton.

NWA was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last month.