Prince Charles is the first to admit that he’s not a particularly gifted watercolorist, but the royal has long made a point of painting the natural landscapes around him, as he finds the hobby soothing.
The Prince of Wales’s artwork is currently on display at The Garrison Chapel in London until February 14. This is the first full exhibition of his paintings, which include beautiful vistas in Scotland, France, Africa and more. In one of the display panels in the exhibit, Charles says that he first became interested in watercolors after finding his mother Queen Elizabeth’s artistic passion of photography to be, “less than satisfying,” according to The Scotsman. He continued, “Quite simply, I experienced an overwhelming urge to express what I saw through the medium of watercolor and to convey that almost ‘inner’ sense of texture, which is impossible to achieve via photography.”
But the royal added that when he first picked up a paintbrush he wasn’t exactly a natural. “Looking back now at those first sketches I did, I am appalled by how bad they are,” he said. “But, nevertheless, the great thing about painting is that you are making your own individual interpretation of whatever view you have chosen.”