NHS Portrait Project
A U3A member has paid an inspiring artistic tribute to nurses at a local hospital.
Janet Benge, a member of Palmers Green and Southgate U3A, created a project - drawing portraits of a nursing team at a nearby hospital.
Initially inspired by work by another artist, Janet contacted a friend who works as a night nurse at Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare, with the idea of painting a portrait of her. This turned into an A3 pencil drawing of the whole team, 18 nurses in total.
Janet said, "This seemed to be a great way to fill in the long hours of self isolation and would give me, a self isolator by virtue of my age, an opportunity to contribute in some small way towards the ‘war effort."
During the project which took Janet six weeks - each nurse sent Janet a photo which she worked from, drawing four full figures, and fourteen heads.
The work now hangs at HRCH along with a tribute that Janet wrote to the team and the work they have been doing during the Covid-19 crisis.
The drawing was included in The People’s Picture - a rainbow mural made up of 12, 456 pictures saying thank you to the NHS and key workers, which was displayed at Piccadilly Circus.
Read Janet’s tribute to the nurses on our U3A blog Sources