Artist charts events from Queen's reign in picture (From York Press)

Clive Perry charts events from Queen's reign in picture

10:46am Tuesday 21st August 2012 in Selby & Tadcaster

ARTWORK by a North Yorkshire artist charting events from the Queen’s reign has received praise from Buckingham Palace.

Tadcaster artist Clive Perry has paid his own tribute to the Queen in her Diamond Jubilee year by painting major events from her long reign.

He sent the Queen herself a limited edition copy of the painting and received a thank-you letter in return.

Mr Perry said: “I had to think very, very carefully about what to include and what to leave out. Painting was the easy part.”

The painting shows scenes including the Queen at Treetops Hotel in Kenya in 1952 when her father, George VI, died and at the Coronation.

It also includes five of Her Majesty’s Prime Ministers: Churchill, Wilson, Thatcher, Blair and Cameron.

Mr Perry said three weeks before the Jubilee took place in May, Rod Allison, owner of Gallery 42 in Tadcaster, suggested Mr Perry should do a painting.

The finished piece is an amalgamation of events during the Queen’s reign, both good and bad, which took “15 days to paint and a lot of research”.

Afghanistan and the Falklands war are depicted as well as the travels of the Queen to the Taj Mahal and Canada.

The arts are represented by the inclusion of The Beatles and The Phantom Of The Opera and in the bottom right- hand corner there is even a “tiny, tiny torn-up photograph of Charles and Diana.” The picture also features Concorde and the Queen’s corgis.

Mr Allison urged Mr Perry to send a copy to the Queen and they received a response from her Lady in Waiting, Annabel Whitehead.

In it, Clive was thanked for his “splendid Jubilee painting” and told how the Queen herself was “very touched by the picture”.

Limited edition prints of the painting will be available at Gallery 42 and each features a numbered guide on the back, explaining every event included.