Meet the King's new iPad artist

Telegraph

12-04-2025

The King has appointed his first 'digital' artist to capture an overseas state visit: a former fish and chip shop worker rejected from major art schools for being too traditional.
Fraser Scarfe, 38, is the official tour artist in Italy. The King reportedly admired his choice of medium in the form of an iPad Mini.
Scarfe, who now teaches at the Royal Drawing School, captured scenes from the King and Queen's trip to Rome and Ravenna on the device, saying he was keen to show how screens can be used creatively rather than just scrolling through content.
He joined the Royal family entourage for the four-day state visit to Italy, with the King viewing some of his works on the flight home.
Scarfe called the appointment an 'honour and a privilege', saying it was a 'no brainer' to accept the commission and be 'let loose' to capture the King and Queen travelled and the people they met.
He created 15 digital works during the trip, using his finger or a stylus pen to draw onto an iPad.
He also carried with him a traditional sketchbook, in which he made on-the-go observations in pen, and created another five or six paintings.
He is the latest of the King's 42 royal tour artists. The first was appointed by the then Prince of Wales in 1985, with 69 tours over 95 countries being drawn and painted since then.
The position is paid for by the King and was inspired by his own interest in art. A keen watercolourist, he makes a point of seeing the works for himself once the artists have finished their collections, and sharing his thoughts.
'Different way of capturing things'
'It was an honour and I'm very pleased that His Majesty values the importance of the arts,' said Scarfe, who has previously been commissioned to record his view of the Coronation.
'Everything [the King does] is documented so well by the press and the media, [but] having an artist allows a different way of capturing things.
'I know how important it is to His Majesty to support artists and be engaged in the creative industries.
'As a painter himself, he's always interested to see different artists' interpretations of things like the tour.'
The King has been to see David Hockney, a pioneer of painting on an iPad, and spoke to Scarfe about his Italian pieces on the plane on the way home from the tour.
'His Majesty was very keen to say that I should use it as an opportunity to work in whichever way I see fit... no constraints,' said the artist, who added that he had tried to capture the big events, key locations and 'quieter moments'.
He began his working life in his teens and early 20s in a fish and chip shop called Mantles in his home of Horncastle, Lincolnshire, after his applications to London art schools were rejected after secondary school.
Scarfe founded his own studio and began creating art works anyway, before 'stumbling across' a course at the Royal Drawing School – formerly the Prince's Drawing School and founded by Prince Charles in 2000. He was awarded a full scholarship for the Drawing Year programme in 2012 and is now head of education delivery at the school.
'We don't want to lose the time-honoured ways of making paintings and drawings but I think it's really important that we look at ways that digital technology can support the creative industries and enhance them,' he said.
'My hope is that more people will start to use their devices for more creative means, rather than always consuming content.'
His digital method, which uses an app called Procreate, allows him to work with a full colour palette while only carrying a small electronic tablet.