We had not been married for long when I commissioned a portrait artist to paint a picture of my wife. At the same time Margaret Thatcher had just told her official portrait artist to go back and start again. It seemed like an impertinence and typical Thatcher arrogance. However when the portrait my wife, Sue, was revealed to us I realised immediately what this is all about.
A painting, however good, is not a photograph; it is not meant to be so and should not be so.
In a way a painting should always shock some part of us, while a photograph might reassure us that we are still there.
So Rolf Harris's portrait of the Queen ,recently unveiled, has something of that struggle.
To paint a wife is one thing, to paint a Queen is quite another. It is a measure of Harris's great artistic talent that we can get a grasp of some of it. He is a quite amazing man!!
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