Portraits for NHS Heroes
In 2020, during lockdown, the portrait artist Tom Croft BEM offered to paint a free oil painting of an NHS worker. As he had so many requests, he suggested that other artists join him in making this offer. To say that this snowballed would be an understatement - over 500 artists were paired with subjects or found their own. The project became a book, which you can purchase here.
Where do I come in? Well, since 2015 I have been a volunteer blood biker for SERVOBN. We provide an out of hours service to the NHS, delivering blood, platelets, samples and more for the NHS at absolutely no charge. We receive no funding other than that which we raise ourselves. Normally we are on duty overnight on weekdays and 24 hours a day at the weekend, bank holidays, Christmas etc. When the covid-19 crisis was it its worse, however, we offered a 24/7 service to supplement the work done by the NHS Blood service, and we were very busy indeed.
I was thrilled when the portrait artist Sue Side, with whom I have exhibited for many years, approached me, offering to draw my portrait for the project. The resultant pencil portrait is incredibly true to life, and I am flattered and humbled that it appears in the book.
David, graphite, 2020 by Sue Side
Naturally I had to return the favour. I knew of a lady in Oxford, Beth, who was one of the first vaccine trial volunteers, when it had all been very experimental and scary. She put her health on the line for others and for scientific advancement, and I felt that this was worthy of reward. She was also a biker, and had been offering her services as a courier, fetching and carrying for neighbours when so many could not get out of the house. Finally she had also given her time as a STEM ambassador to schools, writing about her experience on the vaccine trials. I got in touch with Beth and asked if I could carve a simple line portrait - I was not confident that I could manage a full statue! - in stone. She sent photos, and the result is below. I was again flattered when my piece was selected for the book as well.
My thanks to Sue for drawing me, for Beth for her work and for being my subject, to Tom for the extraordinary project that resulted from a kind offer on instagram and to our NHS heroes for their incredibly hard work and sacrifice.
Bethan Linscott, Vaccine Volunteer, Ancaster weatherbed, 2020
