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The Veterans’ Magazine
Issue 29 | March 2017
The War Poppy Collection
Jacqueline Hurley talks to the SBT
about her stunning works of art
100 Years of Vera
As Dame Vera Lynn celebrates
her 100th Birthday we look back
at her incredible story
The SBT News
This week’s latest national
and international news
from the world of Veterans
and Armed Forces
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Ken Brooks
Osteopath
The War Poppy Collection
Coming across this
stunning collection of
superb artwork has to be
one of the highlights of the
year for me so far. Being a
little closet fan of war art,
poetry, war music etc I was
delighted to come across an
advert for the War Poppy
Collection being displayed
at the National Arboretum.
I dived into the website and
was totally blown away. I
could go on all day about
this incredible collection
but I’d rather the artist tell
you in her own words about
them. The Sandbag Times
has enourmous pleasure in
introducing Jacqueline
Hurley, War Poppy Artist.
I
started painting The War Poppy Collection in
October 2014 following advice from my doctor to
find a therapeutic activity to help conquer severe
depression, anxiety and panic attacks. My first
remembrance painting was inspired while recalling the
tragic death of my friend Royal Marine Neil Dunstan
whilst he was serving with the Brigade Reconnaissance
Force in Afghanistan in 2008. Neil was killed in an
IED explosion that destroyed his Jackal vehicle while
undertaking a routine patrol with Afghan National
Security Forces. The first painting 'We Remember, We
Fight On' was painted as a tribute and personal thank
you to him. I am often asked by people why I started
this collection of paintings and it is wonderful to be
able to talk about Neil and help keep the remembrance
of him alive through my artwork.
It is important for me to thank our troops, veterans and
their families, and my artwork has allowed me to reach
out to people all over the world who I never would
have been able to communicate with otherwise. Visual
art can be a powerful means of communication as well
as speaking a universal language. My War Poppy
Collection paintings are tributes to our heroes in our
Armed Forces and a remembrance to our fallen.
My paintings use texture and layering as an integral
part of my expressionism style, demonstrating that the
hidden aspects are as important as those immediately
visible; representing the mind and the long term
suffering which is often inflicted by war. The red
remembrance poppies are juxtaposed against highly
textured, gritty impressionistic landscapes. I don't paint
faces on my figures. Silhouettes help people connect
with the works in a more personal, emotional and
sentimental way; encouraging the people I paint for to
relate the subjective nature of the paintings and the
impressionism which have often been described as
poignant and emotive.
My painting can become a place you know, a person
you love, it could be you.
Although the images I paint depict war, I try to bring a
sense of peace to my work, this being what we all hope
for and what precious lives have been sacrificed for.
After only painting the first few paintings in my War
Poppy Collection, I made contact with The Royal
British Legion who I now have a Commercial
Association Agreement with and The Royal Marines
Association. Although I wanted to keep the collection
of original paintings together, there was an increasing
demand for prints of my paintings which were being
shared all over social media. It was a fantastic
opportunity to help raise funds for these two wonderful
charities.
At a conference I attended for the Royal British
Legion, the former Director General saw my
remembrance art and invited me to exhibit my 'Recent
Conflicts' work at the Royal Albert Hall for the
Festival of Remembrance 2015. This was such a huge
honour and the first time my artwork had gone on
public display just a year after first starting painting. I
met so many lovely people and was able to personally
thank a lot of serving personnel and veterans. It was
here that I made the decision to commemorate WW1
and WW2 in further paintings in my War Poppy
Collection.
As soon as I returned home from London I began
painting the first of my WW1 paintings. One of my
great grandfathers was a Crack Shot during the Great
War, another served with the Home Guard and another
was a Stretcher Bearer. Thankfully, my great
grandfathers who had served on the Western Front all
came home at the end of the First World War. My great
grandfather William decided he wanted to continue the
work he had been doing on the battlefields and
trenches so trained as a psychiatric nurse, working with
soldiers with what is now known as PTSD.
I have received wonderful comments about the
remembrance art in my 1914-1918 War Poppy
Collection from many people who have been touched
by and connected with it. It is continuing to keep
remembrance in the forefront of people's minds not
just one day a year but every day.
Around this time mainstream galleries started to
contact me and I feel blessed and honoured that my
remembrance art is now reaching a wider audience
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through art galleries across the country as well as being
sold by many military giftshops including The Royal
Marine's Shop, The RAF Museum Online Store and a
number of regimental PRI Shops. Again this is a
fantastic opportunity for my artwork to be used to help
raise funds for various forces charities. Last Spring,
AC Framing Gallery in Centre MK Shopping Centre in
Milton Keynes also had a 'Meet the Artist' exhibition
of my work. This was a wonderful opportunity to meet
so many lovely people who came to say hello and talk
to me about my work.
A few weeks earlier I had been contacted by Koin Ltd
who produce World Challenge Coins asking if I would
be interested in licensing some of the paintings in my
War Poppy Collection to feature on silver and gold
medals commemorating the upcoming 100 Year
Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, in support of
SSAFA The Armed Forces Charity. I absolutely loved
the high quality collectables they produced and
discovered that the Managing Director of the company,
Ross Davies had served as a Royal Marine and known
my friend Neil, who inspired the first painting.
The commemoratives were a huge success with
thousands of people wanting to continue collecting so
a second and third volume were produced. Since the
release of the War Poppy Collection commemoratives
in July 2016, over £40,000 has been raised for SSAFA.
If any readers are interested in these commemoratives,
more details can be found at
www.warpoppycollection.co.uk
During this time I had begun working on my most
recent War Poppy Collection 1939-1945. I had grown
up in a very close family and my grandparents had
often shared memories with me of their lives during
WW2. My grandpa Les joined the Royal Navy at the
start of WW2 serving as an able seaman. He was later
commissioned as a gunnery officer. During the war he
served on the aircraft carrier HMS Furious at the time
the spitfires were launched to save Malta. He also
served for two years on the Arctic convoys to Russia
and another two years mine sweeping from Dover. My
grandpa often talked of his time in the Royal Navy
before he retired as a Commander. It was a very
special part of his life and he was extremely proud to
have been able to serve his country.
My other grandfather, grandad Jack also served during
WW2. He was in the Territorials before the war and
served with the Royal Engineers at the start of the war,
later serving with The Royal Signals in North Africa.
Grandad Jack didn't talk about the war very much
although he did learn some very rude jokes and rhymes
which I won't repeat right now! He had a wonderful
sense of humour. My Nanny Doris worked in a
parachute factory in London during the war and told
me how she made silk knickers with the offcuts of
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fabric for when my Grandad came home! She also told
me of the time she was forces to jump two floors, like
Wonderwoman, when the whole side of her flat was
bombed. My other Nanny Joy worked as a secretary in
Southampton. One day she went off on her bicycle to
post the mail and when she returned her office had
been bombed and wasn't there on her return. Another
story my grandparents told was when my great
grandparents, who lived through both world wars, had
been asleep in bed during The Blitz when a bomb
came through the roof of their home, making a hole
right through their house to the ground floor.
Amazingly and thankfully didn't explode!
It is lovely to be able to share this with you. WW1 and
WW2 are part of this country's history and heritage
and too much has been sacrificed for the freedom we
are blessed with today, for those who lived and fought
through these times to be forgotten. I feel it is so
important to pass these stories onto our children and
grandchildren as they need to understand what
generations before them lived through, and that our
freedom wasn't free.
It has always been very important to me to thank and
pay tribute to our servicemen and women who
sacrificed so much for the freedom we are blessed with
today. I am still currently painting this collection and I
know my grandparents would have been very proud of
my work and what it represents. I am just sorry that
they are no longer here to share their thoughts and
ideas with me.
I had the huge honour of again being invited by The
Royal British Legion to exhibit my latest works in the
War Poppy Collection at The Royal Albert Hall for the
Festival of Remembrance 2016. My new pieces my
were very well received and I met many more
wonderful people who helped to raise more funds for
the RBL by purchasing prints of the artwork. It amazes
me how many people approach me because they
recognise my work. It is lovely that people want to talk
to me about it and share their own personal
experiences and memories of loved ones with me.
Jacqueline’s collection can be viewed at the National
Memorial Arboretum. Click on the picture below for
further details. Also, on our NAAFI Break page,
there is the opportunity for one lucky reader to win a
signed print of our cover picture ‘Raid of
Remembrance’. To enter the competition go to page
27 and have a go.
The Sandbag Times would like to thank Jacqueline
for her kindness and assistance in the production of
this article and for the donation of the prize for this
months competition.
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