A Welsh artist who made portraits of the Queen has recalled how her sense of fun helped ease the pressure of painting the most famous woman in the world.
Nicky Philipps got the late Monarch to sit for a portrait three times - in 2013, 2016 and 2018. The 58-year-old described the experience as incredibly daunting at first but ended up being enormous fun.
Ms Philipps said: "She was extraordinarily well-informed about everything... that's all over and above the fact that we all know she took it terribly seriously and it's her duty, but I think because she had such a vibrant sense of humour, she could find the fun in it as well.
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"That relieved some of the heavier burden of it, I think that's very important and she had a fabulous sense of humour. She was being very funny a lot of the time and there are well-documented reports that she had very good timing, was a very good mimic, and in the relatively short time I had with her, I saw all that."
Her 2016 painting titled HM Queen Elizabeth II, commissioned by the Royal Company of Archers for the Queen's 90th birthday, was completed from original sketches worked on in Buckingham Palace and was unveiled at The Archers' Hall in Edinburgh.
Ms Philipps said the Queen was "very obliging" during their time together and seemed to "conform exactly to the part the monarchy plays in the country".
She said: "It struck me that she actually, along with understanding the role of the monarchy to the finest detail, appreciated it and wanted to keep the show on the road, as it were. She understood the seriousness of it and that includes all the traditions, customs and funny little absurdities and some of the eccentricities that are all part of it. I think in some ways she sort of revelled in some of the eccentric bits.
The artist added that the Queen as "fun to be with" and explained there were a lot of times that she wanted to put her paintbrush down and focus on what the monarch was saying. She recalled: "She's actually very tactful because she didn't come and look at it until the end of my three sittings and then she came out and had a look and said something tactful like 'very nice.'
"If somebody came forward and said 'would you like to sit down or a glass of water' she was quite impatient then, she would say 'I'm fine'. She very much wanted to concentrate on the job, getting it done and giving me the help that she could.
"It was a massive honour to be able to do it but it was also incredible fun. You feel highly pressured, but you come away sort of buzzing and I'm so grateful that I met and spent so much time with her. She was very kind to me."
Ms Philipps has also painted William and Harry in a double portrait for the National Portrait Gallery, Princess Anne, and the Duchess of Cornwall and Cambridge in a private commission for King Charles.
Speaking about the Queen's death, she added: "Of course, on a mortal level we all know that you can't last forever, I just never imagined this day would happen. I'm sort of shell-shocked, because it's the end of one great era, I'm not suggesting there can't be others, but this one has been with me for 58 years."
