Harriet Durkin

Tom says: "Harriet was the first person to respond to my offer of a portrait.

She is an A & E nurse at Manchester Royal Infirmary and was at home recovering from Covid-19 when she contacted me.

We discussed how we should describe Harriet in her portrait and she sent me some reference photos to base the portrait on. I thought the image of Harriet in her PPE gear set the scene of what she has to go through on a daily basis to administer care. The cropped composition puts the viewer in the role of a patient and the atmospheric lighting really appealed to me as a painter. Her hand is raised we assume to wave at us, but it could just as easily be misconstrued as a reminder of the need for social distancing. It’s far harder to read facial expressions with a masked face and I understand this can create additional anxiety for the patient and make the carers job trickier. As a portrait painter you usually have the whole face to describe someone but with a mask on you only really see the eyes, so I felt the need to paint another portrait of Harriet relaxed at home with no mask on. This was a more personal thank you to Harriet. We have got to know each other over the course of this process and I now look forward to actually meeting Harriet in person soon!"

Harriet says: “I was tagged in a post on Instagram by one of my friends back on the 4th April, Tom was offering a free portrait to the first key worker who contacted him, I immediately messages telling him I am an A&E nurse working on the front line, but at the time was off work with Covid-19 symptoms. Tom contacted me telling me I was the first person, I felt excited and curious as to how it would work. In a short period of time Tom had paired so many artist with key workers and was overwhelmed with messages from people wanting to get involved. Tom asked for a few pictures of myself (as we couldn’t meet in person due to the virus) so I sent across several pictures, one of which was a picture of me in PPE. The picture was the first time I put full PPE on at work getting ready for a shift and sent it to my parents. Tom suggested painting two portraits, one of me at work in PPE and one of me natural at home. I felt extremely nervous about the experience, never having had a portrait painted of myself before. Seeing how many people have got involved made me so proud to be a nurse during such a difficult time, and it was so heartwarming to see how much Tom wanted to give back to all the key workers. When I saw the portrait for the first time I felt so overwhelmed and speechless. I can look at that portrait and it will remind me of Covid-19, what me and my colleagues are going through. At the same time it makes me feel proud to be part of an amazing team and how the doctors, nurses, porters, the absolutely amazing domestics any many more have all come together to work so hard and care for every patient that comes through the door. The second portrait of me is a completely stripped back version of myself, no makeup hair barely dry and not what I’m used to, during time away from work I have been looking after my skin (the masks don’t help) and embracing natural beauty. Tom gave me a little boost of confidence and together we decided on a picture which he has now created into an amazing natural portrait of myself which I love. I am excited about the exhibition, I can’t wait for when lots of amazing art work by all the talented artist can be displayed, and lot of key workers can gather together and share different experiences with our portraits displayed. I am also looking forward to meeting Tom the extremely talented artist behind my portraits. I feel proud to be a nurse everyday, but it’s incredible to feel so valued and appreciated during such a difficult time."