Portraits for NHS Heroes
In March 2020, the portrait artist Tom Croft (www.thomascroft.co.uk) began an initiative on Instagram to match portrait artists with frontline workers in the Covid-19 crisis.
#portraitsforNHSheroes
From Tom: “In the past portraits have been seen as a status symbol, or produced to celebrate someone, mark some significant achievements, milestones and potentially to elevate that person in the eyes of others. It also immortalises people, as the portraits are likely to live far longer than the subjects.
So who should be immortalised today? Who should line the walls of galleries and have future generations look back on as the people who really made a difference and stepped up, in our latest darkest hour. The people who put self interest and self preservation to one side and literally risked their lives knowingly on a daily basis for our well being.”
My contributions to this initiative and a little about the subjects are below.
Neil
Hattie asked for this portrait of her dad Neil. Neil works at Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley on a surgical ward which has turned into a covid-19 ward.
Jenny
Jenny is a midwife at Queen’s Hospital Burton in Staffordshire, and was working on a bereavement shift when the photo for this painting was taken.
Dani
Dani is a Theatre Assistant at Ipswich Hospital currently undertaking a Trainee Nurse Associate Apprenticeship. She has been redeployed during the Covid-19 period to a Mobile Emergency Rapid Intubation Team (MERIT).
Annie
Annie is an Occupational Therapist working in acute adult mental health at Cefn Coed Hospital in Swansea.
Rachael
Rachael is a second year mental health student and helped with the covid-19 response in Devizes, Wiltshire.
Marcus
Marcus is an A&E Registrar in south London. This portrait is painted from a selfie Marcus took after a particularly hard shift to say hi to his family.