During the show it occasionally interviewed other artists who had been privileged to also have the queen sit for them. An artist named Justin Mortimer popped up briefly along with his portrait. There was something about it that I loved.
HMQ Commissioned by The Royal Society for the Arts 1997
I did an Internet search on him and found that his work has moved on since. It can sometimes be discouraging to discover an artist who is doing exactly what you had dreamed of evolving into because it has suddenly already been done. But Justin's work teeters somewhere between like and dislike for me. It is that strange space where I can't get his work out of my head and can't tell if it is because it bothers me or because I love it. I think it is both.
What I am drawn to is the unexpected find of what I am always striving for as an artist. He has discovered a balance between being free to do whatever he wants while still using a
technical skill that has been honed. What is not discouraging is that he is using that skill in a different way than I want to, but don't yet envision how I will go about it. I must keep an eye on his work.
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