Award-winning artist and Homewood, Ala., native Steve Skipper was recently delegated to create a royal portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Anne, making him the first African American to be formally commissioned to do so by Buckingham Palace.

Skipper said the portrait, unveiled for British ambassadors in Savannah, Ga., on Thursday, has been years in the making.

“It’s pretty overwhelming,” said Skipper. “I have a personal relationship with Andrew Young [former United States Ambassador to the United Nations,] and he introduced us to some friends of King Charles [Prince Charles at the time] about three years ago. We started talking about the possibility of doing a painting of Queen Elizabeth, and from there it grew and grew and grew.”

Skipper is a world-renowned sports artist and last year was named by the United States Sports Academy as the Sports Artists of the Year and has previously been named one of the Top 50 sports artists in the world.

Skipper is also the first African American artist to do sanctioned and officially licensed artwork for several universities and organizations, including the University of Alabama, Auburn University, the Dallas Cowboys as well as NASCAR, and his work is on permanent display at museums throughout the country, including the Paul W. Bryant Museum, the Eddie G. Robinson Museum, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame, Auburn University’s Lovelace Museum, the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, the College Football Hall of Fame, the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the International Motorsports Hall of Fame.

In addition to his work with sports, Skipper is also well-known for his commemorative Civil Rights paintings and was commissioned by the city of Birmingham to create the official artwork celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights movement.

If you’d like to Skipper’s art in person, “Coming Home,” a collection of some of Skipper’s work is currently on display now through May 30 in the Homewood City Hall’s first-floor exhibition corridor.

“For the first time, it’s a collection of some of my original paintings,” said Skipper of the exhibition. “A lot of people have not had a chance to see that many of my original paintings at one time.”

The exhibition is open to the public from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, visit the The Homewood Arts Council’s website.