#portraitsfornhsheroes
During the first lockdown in 2020, Julie Bennett volunteered to paint portraits of frontline NHS workers as part of Tom Croft's social media project #portraitsfornhsheroes Tom Croft. an artist based in Oxford, UK wanted to lift the spirit of one NHS staff member by offering, via his Instagram account, to paint them for free. Croft was overwhelmed with the reaction he received, literally 100s of NHS workers contacted him, so he put a call-out to professional and amateur artists to volunteer their skills. Bennett offered to help and via her, Instagram received requests from 15 frontline NHS staff in less than 2 hours, 'It was quite overwhelming to be contacted by so many of these brave NHS individuals who liked my work'. Bennett completed 12 finished portraits of frontline NHS workers, She is very proud of her contribution.
All the completed portraits have been on public display in Maidenhead and will hopefully move to a central London location in summer 2021. All paintings will be gifted to the subjects once the exhibition comes to a close.
To mark the completion of the series of paintings she produced a tea towel to help raise funds for the Healthcare Workers' Foundation. The tea towel edition is now sold out.
Media coverage
Julie Bennett's portrait of Ellen Calloo is featured in 'Portraits for NHS Heroes' a hardback art book published by Bloomsbury Caravel (12 Nov. 2020, ISBN-13: 978-1448218004) alongside many other NHS heroes paintings.
Julie Bennett's portrait of Ellen Calloo was featured in the Maidenhead Advertiser newspaper alongside other NHS heroes paintings.
Julie Bennett's portrait of Katie Scott was featured in the Maidenhead Advertiser newspaper alongside other NHS heroes paintings.
Julie Bennett's portrait of Helen Donaldson was featured on the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust website.
Julie Bennett's portrait of Verona Beckles was featured on the home page of the Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust website.