If you were in the crowd for Trooping the Colour in June, you might have spotted a man wearing a bowler hat. That man was most likely the artist Freddy Paske, soaking up the scene, pencil in hand. Paske, a former captain in the Light Dragoons, was the official artist-in-residence for the late Queen’s Platinum Jubilee this year.
We meet at his Oxfordshire studio, where he lives with his wife and their spaniel, Kimbo, and where over coffee he explains how this most regal of residencies emerged. “It grew from Russell Bond [a Major in the Life Guards] asking if I wanted to be the Household Cavalry’s resident artist for the Jubilee,” says Paske. “It made me think about the other ceremonial horses – I thought we should capture all of those on parade.” To achieve this, he had to get the Royal Mews on board, as well as the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery. He asked the King’s Troop’s commanding officer Major Fran Sykes, who was keen, and approached
