A ONE-OF-A-KIND art display in celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee has been placed in North Berwick’s community art space.
The watercolour was hung up last Thursday, on the day that official jubilee celebrations began across the country.
It sits inside the disused telephone boxes on Westgate, a site which has been rejuvenated by pARTicipate for community-led art installations.
pARTicipate works under the umbrella of North Berwick Environment and Heritage Trust (NBEHT) and recently produced a touching tribute to Ukraine within the space.
The new Platinum Jubilee display now includes the watercolour of the Queen dressed in her Scottish Order of the Thistle robes, sitting in front of the beach in North Berwick, with the Bass Rock shining in the background.
The painting, created anonymously, is in the centre cabinet and is decorated with Platinum Jubilee bunting to celebrate the monarch’s 70 years of rule.
Geraldine Prince, pARTicipate co-ordinator, said: “This is our fifth summer on the high street and we’re finally able to complete the plan to turn one of the phone boxes into a tiny ‘kiosk gallery’ for art displays.
“On each side are truly inspiring inscriptions devoted to ‘absent friends’ and those who have died, which have had a tremendous impact.
“We needed to add something to reflect how valued, respected and important those inscriptions are.
“The kiosk gallery was finished just in time for the jubilee and, by sheer luck, an artist, who wishes to remain anonymous, offered to create a portrait for display.
“The profile portrait of the Queen wearing a small crown will be immediately recognisable, especially by children, as the iconic image on coins and banknotes, not just in the UK but across the Commonwealth.
“The Queen is wearing the green robes of the Scottish Order of the Thistle but the unique aspect is that Her Majesty is shown against a seascape with the Bass Rock, making it a distinctively North Berwick royal portrait.
“The aim of the telephone boxes is always to offer something unexpected in what used to be a derelict space; perhaps this will be a memorably surprising contribution to the town’s jubilee celebrations.”
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