Prince George granted Prince William permission to share glimpse of private project he worked hard on before Eton
The Prince of Wales chose to include his son's work in his own royal venture and would likely have got sign-off from George first
The Prince of Wales has spoken about the importance of work/life balance and whilst he's comfortable sharing some family anecdotes, he generally prefers to keep some separation between the children and his job. However, there are times where Prince William has made an exception and the proud dad just gave us all a special look at George's personal project.
It turns out the teenager is an accomplished artist and his beautiful drawing of a kingfisher is included in William's newly-published guest edited issue of Country Life. It would surely only have been featured if the Prince of Wales had got his son's permission and this piece shows a tremendous amount of skill - and a distinct Middleton family influence.
Although King Charles is famously into painting, the Princess of Wales and her family are equally arty. Kate studied Art History at the University of St Andrews and we've seen her own work in the past, including a sketch of the Scottish town done in 2002.
From when Prince George, Charlotte and Louis were very small, she was determined to recreate childhood experiences she had and art played a key part in this. The Princess revealed as much on the Happy Mum, Happy Baby podcast in 2020 when she credited her grandmother with inspiring her to be so hands-on and creative as a parent.
"I had an amazing granny who devoted a lot of time to us, playing with us, doing arts and crafts and going to the greenhouse to do gardening, and cooking with us," she explained. "And I try and incorporate a lot of the experiences that she gave us at the time into the experiences that I give my children now."
We know that the future Queen draws and paints with the Wales kids, as she's shared a glimpse of the artwork created by each of them. Posting about her Early Childhood Foundation's Shaping Us framework in 2025, Kate described how "drawing portraits with children can provide a moment of connection as you spend time looking at and focusing on one another".
She added that you're "most importantly" having fun together and although time and practice is no guarantee of talent, Prince George's artistic abilities have definitely flourished. The Prince and Princess of Wales are clearly very proud of him, as William chose to feature their son's kingfisher drawing in Country Life when a photograph or another artist's work could've been used.
George did it in the spring which is when kingfisher breeding season starts in the UK and it's possible that he might have drawn it from real life.
Either way, it shows the teenager's interest in this hobby and now he's living away from home at Eton College he could continue to express himself creatively through artwork in this new setting.
One day in the future we might get to see a wider collection of his pieces, rather like how King Charles's watercolour paintings have been publicly exhibited several times over the years. Sadly for Prince William, he seemingly doesn't share his father, son and wife's artistic abilities and probably won't be upholding this kingly tradition.
During a video call in 2020, Prince William was asked about his drawing skills and admitted he was "really bad", so he seems to prefer shining a light on his family's talents instead.
