Angus ‘Balesy’ Fleur Baxter has honoured the Queen on her latest farm field canvas.
Since 2014, farmer Fleur has delighted passers-by with brightly painted straw bales in a field beside the Carnoustie to Forfar road.
Her talent for large-scale cartoon creations earned Fleur the ‘Balesy’ tag as her fame spread.
And the annual harvest highlight has raised thousands of pounds for charity.
Since the weekend Fleur has spent hours painting a light-hearted display of 14 bales reflecting two of the monarch’s great loves – horses and dogs.
The display sits beside the B9128 near Crombie crossroads in Angus.
The arable array also includes a recreation of a tribute painting by Yorkshire artist Eleanor Tomlinson.
Her watercolour of the Queen, one of her corgis and Paddington Bear has been taken to their hearts of the nation since the monarch’s death on Thursday.
Fleur said: “I had been waiting for a weather window to do the bales again this year.
“But then with the sad news of the Queen’s passing I wasn’t sure I was going to do it.
“I didn’t want people to think I was being flippant at such a sad time.
“But then I thought people might like to see something that would make them smile so I went ahead.”
And Fleur’s personal recollection of Queen Elizabeth II left her sure Her Majesty would have appreciated the gesture.
“Many years ago I was at a riding event which the Queen was at,” she said.
“The one thing which I really remember from that day is her fantastic sense of humour.
“She was so lovely and friendly.”
Fleur normally chooses a theme around favourite cartoon characters from the likes of Disney, Pixar and even DC Thomson’s stable of comic creations such as Desperate Dan.
“What I’ve done this year is a selection of cartoon dogs and a horse to reflect her love of those animals.
“That wonderful image by the Yorkshire artist was more difficult to do.
“The round bales are easier to paint on because they are wrapped, but this one wasn’t so it was a bit of a challenge.”
♥️
Love #Balesy pic.twitter.com/v0KsuMJs3R— Fleur (@fleurrbie) September 12, 2022
Fleur is raising money for Cancer Research through this year’s artwork.
Anyone wishing to make a donation should visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Fleur-Baxter5
And she’s asking people visiting the field to take care if they are getting up close for a stubble field selfie.
“People do like to go into the field but I would just ask them to be careful about going on the bales and things like that.
“And because the big bale with the Queen on it isn’t wrapped the paint might come off more easily so they might want to take care beside it.”
The painted bales follow other rural tributes as the Queen made her final journey from Balmoral to Edinburgh.
Aberdeenshire farmers lined their tractors in a guard of honour alongside the route of the Queen’s cortege on Sunday.
And in Perthshire, 32 riders formed up in a Glenfarg field for a similar show of respect.
