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An artist-in-residence who draws patients undergoing treatment at a cancer care center has described the "unique and intimate experience" to which he has spent nearly a decade. Simon Tolhurst, 55, said it was a "privilege" to be the resident portrait artist for the charity Hematology Cancer Care University College London Hospitals (UCLH), and has spent every Thursday since 2013 volunteering to create A4 drawings of his patients and offer impressions of them afterwards. Mr Tolhurst now works as a fundraising officer for UCLH Charity and spoke of the 'fascinating' people he has met, as well as his aim to have an exhibition of the 389 portraits he has collected over the past 10 years. years.
"I met so many amazing people on this project and had the privilege of portraying people in this situation," Camden-based Tolhurst told the PA news agency.
"There's a room full of people who are kind of bored because they have to sit in a chair while they're hooked up to IVs to get their chemotherapy, and they're very receptive to having someone to talk to and maybe draw a picture.
"I never know who I'm going to draw when I go there, who I'm going to meet, what they're doing, and what might come up in conversation.
“I don't know of any other situation where someone would walk into (this) environment and attract people during treatments.
"I feel like it's kind of unique because of that."
A lifelong artist, Tolhurst was drawn to portraiture while working in a union building at the University of London and drawing students who posed for him.
In 2013, he was invited to become a portrait painter-in-residence at the UCH Macmillan Cancer Center in the capital city centre, a project that produced a host of "uplifting" and "moving" stories that stuck with him, including a "wish list" family portrait. of a terminally ill patient and a man receiving Car T cell therapy, a specialized type of treatment in which cells are removed and reintroduced into the bloodstream to recognize and attack cancer cells.
"I drew a gentleman, just before Christmas, where he was hospitalized, and I met him because he was donating a photograph to charity," Tolhurst said.
"We chatted for a while and he's a really nice guy. And he was really, really sick at the time."
“But he had something called the Car T cell treatment… And I came back every week to say hello, and he got better every week.
"And the third week I was out of bed, sitting in a chair, posing for myself when the staff came in to say, 'I heard you were going home tomorrow, I just wanted to come in and say hi.' And examples like that ... are really uplifting.
Mr. Tolhurst's works are primarily black and white pencil drawings, to have a low impact in the clinical setting, of seated patients, usually alone but often with a spouse or extended family members.
He once mentioned drawing a patient who couldn't get treatment because her blood pressure was too high.
"I said, 'Well, posing can be quite relaxing, quite meditative. Should we try doing the drawing and see what happens with that? And I think about 45 minutes after the drawing, when the staff came back to take her blood pressure, she was back in the treatable range,” he said.
"It was amazing and she was delighted.
“And she said to me afterwards, 'You showed me something; With the diagnosis and treatments, I was so stressed and worried about everything that I couldn't find time to relax and de-stress.
Tolhurst admitted that the emotional side of the role "still catches my eye from time to time" as he produces artwork that makes him feel close to the subject.
“I like the portrait to look back at the viewer and to do that I have to ask the person who is posing for me to look back at me while I do the drawing,” he said.
“And that eye contact is incredibly intimate; It's something we don't do with strangers. But I really like this dynamic… You feel quite close to people.
Mr Tolhurst also praised the "brilliant" charity that allowed the project to thrive in the clinical space.
Although he is unable to volunteer during the pandemic, he was asked by the hospital's arts and heritage team to draw a series of hospital staff members via video call, a task he called "wonderful."
“It was good to refocus on the staff,” he added.
“They do an amazing job because it's extremely specific what they have to do with the treatments.
“But at the same time, they have to have that level of empathy, caring and humanity.
"I find it a very useful use of this skill to be able to take accurate portraits in a busy environment, and it doesn't cost me anything, it's just time, pencils and paper."
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