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Lightness of Being -The Enigmatic Sovereign

With the recent celebrations of the Queens Platinum Jubilee, which were immensely enjoyable, I followed the events on TV, the trooping of the colour, the fun, colourful parades and the uplifting concert. I joined in local events, with lighting of beacons, and held our own garden party with friends and family, after which I needed a bit of quiet time.


Picking up a magazine, an imagine of the Queen featured in Harper’s Bazar caught my attention, and the accompanying article written by Chris Levine who created the iconic portrait.


Chris Levine is a known as a light artist who works across many mediums in pursuit of an expanded state of perception and awareness through image and form. Levine’s work considers light not just as a core aspect of art, but of human experience more widely and a spiritual, meditative and philosophical edge permeates his work.


Levine created the iconic images, Lightness of Being. With light and stillness at its core, the sensational portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II presents an utterly fresh depiction in the twenty-first century, of the most famous woman in the world. The National Portrait Gallery stated it was the most evocative image of a royal by any artist.


The insight to how Chris Levine worked with the Queen reveals a side of our extraordinary and inspiring figurehead which he shares from behind the scenes, here is the extract from the article.