World War 1.
Soldiers
A Portrait Collection
Over a two year period and due to a special interest in World War 1, I have painted 19 portraits of soldiers who were awarded the Victoria Cross plus Sir John Monash for his military service in WW1.
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Barry Watkins
The subjects were selected from the archives available at the War Memorial in Canberra Australia and copyright had expired.
As a reference for each painting, I used photographs taken when the soldiers enlisted.
Based on the quality of the photograph (considering they were taken 100 years ago), the artwork was kept as accurate as possible to the original.
Black oil was the only medium used to maintain the image of the time and the paintings are on canvass board.
All the paintings were professionally framed and under each subject (within the frame) is a brief profile of the individual concerned.
The objective of the profile was to put a name to the face in honour of just some of the thousands of young men who did not return.
The portraits are framed under glass and the size of the frame is 150cm x 475cm.
I am not a professional artist and have never tried to sell the collection, it was a privilege to create it.
However I wanted to donate the collection to a permanent base where it could be displayed for future generations.
As I would have liked the collection to have been located at a permanent base, it was offered as a donation to the L'Ecole Victoria School, Villers-Bretonneux France
The school has a Museum dedicated to Australia and the soldiers who gave their lives that others may live
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I am delighted to advise the board members of the Mus'ee Franco-Australien Association France in charge of the Museum, have gratefully accepted the donation.
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I am now seeking funds ($2,000) to assist in shipping the collection to Villers-Bretonneux.
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Since the collection was completed, it has been displayed for up to two weeks in various locations in Perth Western Australia for public interest during the ANZAC Day and Remembrance Day period.
