In The Press: Portrait of the Year

A HEREFORDSHIRE care home recently hosted a ‘Portrait Artist of the Year” competition, a collaboration which brought together its residents and aspiring young artists from local colleges.

The event, believed to be the first of its kind held by a care home in the UK, was hosted by Brockington House in Hereford.

The home, which is part of Dormy Care Communities, invited a dozen students from two local colleges – Hereford College of Arts and Hereford Sixth Form College – to spend the day at Brockington to create their portraits.

The ladies and gentlemen who live at the home acted as models and the artists used a variety of different mediums including charcoal, paints, ink and digital to create the portraits.

They were considered by a judging panel which included local artist Mark Stewart of Sunrise Giants, Home Director Shann Thomas, the home’s Activities Co-ordinator and organiser of the competition, Tara Chatterley and Dormy Care Communities Chief Executive Helen Davies-Parsons.

After much deliberation and careful consideration, the title of Portrait Artist of the Year, and a Hobbycraft voucher worth £150, was awarded to 17-year-old Darcy Eccleston from Hereford College of Art for his charcoal portrait of Yvonne.

The runners-up were also presented with vouchers.

Darcy said: “I really enjoyed it, Yvonne was so nice and it was really interesting to meet her. She sat so nicely and I’m really pleased to have won.”

Mark Stewart added: “It was very difficult to choose a winner. The work created by the students showed such talent. Darcy’s work was exceptional. It’s incredibly confident and captured real expression.”

Home Director Shann said: “It was an absolute pleasure to welcome the students in to Brockington House. The ladies and gentlemen loved meeting them and very much enjoyed acting as models for the day. We would very much like to thank both colleges for being so enthusiastic and for getting involved.

“It is a great opportunity for the different generations to mix and we hope this will now lead to more collaborations and an annual competition. We think, from our research, that this is the first competition of its kind to be held by a care home in the UK.

“It was incredibly difficult to choose our winners as they all captured the likenesses of our ladies and gentlemen so well. We plan to hold an exhibition of the portraits so all of the ladies and gentlemen at Brockington, and their families, have a chance to view them and enjoy them as much as we have. ”