A photograph Furr took of the Queen during his sittings with her in 1995 became the subject matter for this series of diamond dust works which launched at the Majesty show at Quantus Gallery in London in 2022. “During the sittings for my portrait of the Queen in the yellow drawing room I was painting but also taking lots of photographs of her Majesty on a film camera for reference.When I think about this life experience now I think about how extraordinary it was.What I like about this image is it is like a reverse timeline. On the right is my original portrait. When I painted it I was going against the grain of what was happening in Britain art-wise as it was the time of the YBAs and the Sensation show which happened 2 years later. Looking at this wall in the gallery reminded me of my own art journey. I was rooted in classical figurative portraiture then and oil paint in particualr which I love to use.I immersed myself in older paintings trying to learn from them. I have since explored many different mediums. This is because I love all Art and I don't think there should be barriers between genres because as an artist I should be able to explore all avenues that I discover and not to be confined to one style. Why did I create this new series of diamond dusts?In 1995 I was at the Palace to paint a portrait.I recently remembered how I felt before the first sitting, (I had two two hour sittings) I was worrying about not knowing how to talk to the Queen and not being sure about what to talk about. I think during the sittings the Queen was fully aware of this. As an artist you are put in a position of trust.There was a huge power dynamic at play. One of the most powerful influential older women in the world and an unknown struggling young artist. When our sittings began the Queen immediately put me at my ease.During our second sitting in our conversation about Art, I made the Queen laugh by saying something. I caught this moment on camera and it has always been one of my favourite images of her. It is very informal and intimate and really captures the Queens great sense of humour and understated kindness I think.Regarding the process, I scanned the film image of my photograph of the Queen then digitally turned it into a half tone. This process fragments the image into dots - which is a nod to Lichtenstein and the print process evident in comics. I then colourize the image digitally. This is then printed onto canvas which is stretched. I add touches or washes of colour and sign the piece on the back and then the diamond dust is applied.I chose diamond dust because it puts the image behind a veil and adds to its mystery. What I said to the Queen to make her laugh is a secret. The diamond dust symbolises the accoutrements of majesty around the human being.The choice of pink for this tryptich is also specific.After painting the Queen I visited the Queens gallery and was struck by one painting, the view of the Roman Campagna from Tivoli by Claude Lorrain. This landscape painting has an amazing rosy glow in it's depiction of a sky at sunset. Lorrain went onto inspire artists to capture the 'picturesque' with the aid of Claude glasses. I think of the phrase looking at the world through 'rose coloured glasses' . Pink to me also represents female confidence and soft power.” – Christian Furr 2022