BRISBANE - A Queensland teenager has painted a portrait of the Queen in Vegemite.
Sixteen-year-old Stef Chard, from the south-east Queensland town of Gympie, said she did not deliberately set out to capture the likeness of the monarch in yeast extract.
"When you run out of paint, thenyou really turn to the next best thing -- it just happened to be here," Ms Chard told Network Ten.
The Queen would not be offended, she said.
"She's had a lot of portraits done of her over the years, so this probably won't faze her that much."
Ms Chard has also painted a Mona Lisa and a self-portrait in Vegemite.
Her mother Angela said the portrait was unusual but well executed.
"I usually see Stef's paintings in oil, so I was very surprised when I saw a Vegemite painting of the Queen," Mrs Chard said.
"It's turned out really well, it's fantastic."
The portrait -- A Toast to Australia -- captures the Queen in her younger years.
But it won only second prize at the Gympie Art Show.
The winner was a picture of a turtle, painted with a more conventional medium.
