Pride, not mine but in my colleagues.

[JohnD]

The Guardian is not everybodies newspaper, and even I have felt that they waste their Saturday colour supplement on trivial matters.   But this time they have used it for a great purpose.  "Paint, sweat and tears" (7/11/2020) features the scheme organised by the artist Tom Croft, who arranged for his colleagues to paint portraits of NHS workers in the depths of the First Lockdown.    On a weekend when we remember the sacrifice of World and other Wars, these pictures record that of those who in the last year have been through the closest that my and younger generations have seen to a world war, something that the Guardian clearly understood in choosing the title for the feature.  Here are just three of the paintings.

 

There are more on Tom Croft's own website: http://www.thomascroft.co.uk/portraits-for-nhs-heroes/

And many more are in a book "Portraits for NHS Heroes" that will be published shortly.   When the arts have been crippled by Covid, because buying the book will also send a contribution to NHS charities, and most of all because it expresses all that is best about the way that people dedicate themselves to an ideal, you might like to give this book for Christmas.

[Adrian Cooper]

4 hours ago, JohnD said:

When the arts have been crippled by Covid, because buying the book will also send a contribution to NHS charities, and most of all because it expresses all that is best about the way that people dedicate themselves to an ideal, you might like to give this book for Christmas.

Well said!

Thank you for flagging this book John which is the result of a brilliant idea. My wife, who is a portrait painter, took part in this scheme and she painted two local heroes. She found the tasks very difficult as she had to work from the photographs that the individuals supplied rather than having the subjects 'sit' for her in her studio (for obvious reasons) but she was delighted to be involved and very rewarded by the response of the appreciative subjects.

Adrian

[JohnD]

Thank you, Adrian, and thanks to your partner, for a great project!

[dougbgt6]

I've bought the book, arrived today. It's extraordinarily moving. I had intended to give it to my daughter who is an artist, but I will buy two more, one for the other daughter and one for me, to mark this year. 

Doug