The acclaimed military artist Helen Chester, from Westbury, has an ongoing project to visually illustrate the problems of veterans suffering with PTSD. She recently exhibited three of the portraits from her collection at the Square Tower in Old Portsmouth.
After hearing about how Gary Weaving, the founder and CEO of Forgotten Veterans UK, has suffered over the years with PTSD, Helen says she decided that she just had to paint his portrait. This is the first portrait of a living military subject that she’s worked on, as she usually paints commissions of WWI subjects and events.
Helen exhibited three of the eight portraits that she’s completed during an event organised by students from Portsmouth University. The students had taken part in a ‘Hell & Back’ experience at the FVUK Basha Camp in Fort Cumberland during February.
During the weekend spent at the fort, fellow student James Taylor filmed their exploits and the premier of the completed video was aired at the Square Tower in front of an invited audience. The funds raised are going to their chosen charity –Forgotten Veterans UK.
A copy of the complete video will be passed to FVUK and loaded up to their YouTube channel within the next few weeks.
