Dr Mo Mowlam was nervous as she awaited the unveiling of her portrait in an art gallery in Holywood, Co Down, yesterday. "It's like having your biography written; I feel too young for all that," she said.
But the Northern Secretary was delighted when she saw the painting. "I was scared stiff I wouldn't like it but it's wonderful, fantastic. It doesn't make me look fat. It makes me look nice."
"You are nice, Mo," shouted one of the guests. "Oh, I can be nasty too," Dr Mowlam joked.
She noted she was wearing a white suit in the painting - "my evening thingy" - and her favourite brooch, a gift from children with learning disabilities.
The portrait was the work of Belfast artist Nicola Russell, who has also painted President Clinton. "I wanted to honour Mo. I admire her personal and professional commitment to the people of Northern Ireland. The peace process would have been nothing without her," she said.
Dr Mowlam appeared against an orange background, although Ms Russell was keen to stress this was of no political significance. "Orange is an unusual background colour but I chose a strong colour because Mo has such strength of character and I wanted to convey her warm, ebullient personality," she said.
Ms Russell spent three months working on the portrait. The Northern Secretary's mouth was the most difficult part, she said. "Mo can be very serious yet light-hearted and flirtatious too and I wanted to capture all that," she said.
The artist had never met her subject until yesterday. "I've never posed for a portrait," Dr Mowlam said. "I couldn't sit still for long enough."
The painting was based on a photograph Dr Mowlam supplied. The Northern Secretary was wearing a half-smile at the time. "Were you thinking of Ken Maginnis?" a reporter joked. "Goodness knows what I was thinking," Dr Mowlam replied.
The portrait was unveiled by Shankill Road community worker Ms May Blood. "It's a great painting," said Ms Blood. "It's so Mo. Her whole personality comes across. It captures the happy, caring, down-to-earth person that she is. She looks regal but approachable. You think `That's somebody I can communicate with'. Mo is very special to the people of Northern Ireland. Everybody feels they know her personally."
Dr Mowlam said she was taking the portrait home to show to her family and would then hang it in her office at Stormont. She has no paintings there, having been too busy with the peace process to turn her mind to art. But her husband had given her a dart board on Valentine's Day, she said, and "the painting and the dart board will give my office a little lift". "Don't put them near each other," Ms Russell advised.