Portraits for NHS Heroes

 I was part of the great initiative, started by Tom Croft, that led to over 10,000 artists completing free portraits for NHS key workers during the pandemic. I was lucky enough to complete portraits. 

The initiative went international and a book was made by Bloomsbury to raise money for NHS Charities Together. Out of thousands, just over 300 portraits were selected to be in the book. 

I had the great honour of painting, Dr Lizzie Ashton, an anaesthetics doctor. Anaesthesiologists deal in pain management and when so many were suffering with chest pain, Dr Ashton was there to help them. 

My watercolour portrait of Lizzie is featured on page 200, the caption reads "Dr Ashton has been doing a wonderful job as an anaesthetis doctor in Swindon. I was so happy to be involved in the project, to show appreciation for those that take such good care of us and to give them something tangible as a thank you. I sincerely hope that our current government can see fit to raise the wages of those hard-working NHS and care staff, so they too, are giving something tangible". 

Not included in the book, was the portrait I painted of Lidia, a staff nurse in her first year at a hospital in London. I can't imagine how terrifying it must have been to be thrown into serving on the front lines so early in her career.