Group Portrait of staff at Watford General

Offered as a thank you to all the NHS staff, who are making huge personal sacrifices to protect and care for the sick during the Covid-19 Pandemic.

The amazing staff at Watford General Hospital Emergency Department chose Rembrandt's famous "Anatomy Lesson" painting for inspiration. They did a great job of reconstruction, and almost all managed not to smile!

Scroll down to see the progress steps of the painting, and videos of the painting process.

Reconstruction

Rembrandt's original "The Anatomy Lesson"

The finished painting

59 x 84 cms. Acrylic paint and coloured pencil, on gesso’d heavy Somerset paper.

See each stage as I build up the layers on the painting

First marks, in Burnt Umber

Blocking in colours

More background and features

Sometimes I work upside down

Working on facial likeness

Trying to 'catch' individuals

Interesting fabric

All the staff's names are being 'written'

The finished portrait

Here are two from a series of live videos I delivered on Instagram, so the team could watch their portrait developing from start to finish. You can see me work and talk about the whole process via the other videos on my Instagram feed.

Group Portrait of staff at Watford General

The finished painting

Brother and sister

Industry (Angela in Hengrove Park Leisure Centre)