NI doctor paints her goodbye to the Queen

Suzanne Watson’s artwork, entitled ‘Going Home’, shows the late monarch walking towards her late husband, Prince Philip, with her beloved corgis by her side, and a crown in the foreground.

The Dromore woman, who has a Facebook page called The Sketching Doctor, said she felt compelled to mark the Queen’s death.

“The painting is to show that after a life of service she (the Queen) gets to leave that overwhelming duty behind her and walk away free and join her husband again. Only the crown and corgis have shadows. I felt that I needed to honour her passing in some way.”

Suzanne added: “I was always interested in the Royal family and am full of admiration for the Queen, as is my seven-year-old old daughter Zoë. I did some paintings around the time of the Jubilee.”

The painting is accompanied by a little poem penned by Suzanne: ‘He waits for you, of that I’m sure/ Standing tall on a windswept moor/Leave the crown, be free, now homeward bound/A life of service, our thanks resound.’

Suzanne re-discovered a love of art during the first lockdown as her two daughters got to grips with home schooling and she dealt with the stress of Covid, busy surgery life and parenting.

She said: “I wanted something creative to do and to focus on other than watching the news and baking banana bread! I’ve painted on and off since my early 20s, but stopped when I had children. I started again in the early part of the Covid lockdown, but it really was just messing about with watercolours. I gave up art in school at 14 as I was more science-orientated and then went onto study medicine and became a GP, so a world away from this painting!

Suzanne said the Sketching Doctor page has been much more successful than she ever imagined it would be.

“It resulted in my writing a children’s book as people wanted a story to go with some of my art.”

And she said the response to her ‘Going Home’ painting of the late Queen has been “extremely positive”.

“I love that my paintings have captured people’s imagination. They’ve often made people happy and that’s a brilliant feeling.”

Indeed, her evocative painting has proved such a hit online that people have been requesting prints.

“I was unsure whether prints were a good idea, or not, but have decided to get a few done as people specifically asked for them,” she said.

Another of Suzanne’s paintings is called ‘Time to Go’ is of the Queen’s funeral and shows a piper, a horse, and her devoted corgis.