An artist who has painted a portrait of Queen Elizabeth admitted it was "scary" being in the same room when she unveiled the work.
Colin Davidson’s artwork was seen by the 90-year-old monarch for the first time at a reception for peace process charity Co-Operation Ireland yesterday (08.11.16), but he feared she wouldn’t be a fan of the piece.
He told the BBC: "I sometimes wonder why I choose to be in the same room as the person whenever any of the portraits are unveiled.
"It’s a scary time.
"But, in some ways, whenever the painting is out of the studio it’s out of my hands."
While the queen seemed to approve of Colin’s painting, he admits feeling a "weight" of importance upon him when he was creating the portrait.
He added: "Here’s someone who is perhaps the most famous face in the world and has been so for 63 years.
"I’m bringing everything that I know about painting to it.
"With anybody I paint, it’s a human being in their own right, but with this particular painting I was aware of the gravity and sheer importance and weight which comes with the person I was painting."
The Northern Irish artist painted the portrait from a sitting at Buckingham Palace in May and as well as taking plenty of photographs, he made about 20 drawings of the queen.
He said: "The drawings tend for me to be really important because they capture what I felt.
"The camera just simply takes a frozen frame.
"The drawings are used for the likeness and the spirit of the time that we spent together."
Queen Elizabeth artist was ‘scared’
