and
Danny Howes
are proud to support
Help for Heroes 2011
by donating a painting for this years auction.
‘A Letter to Home’ will form part of a new exhibition by Danny Howes that will be held in late Spring 2012. The collection called ‘Unguarded Moments’ will be based on the soldiers out in Afghanistan, showing a side of life out there that we rarely get to see on television news reports or in the newspapers.
‘A Letter to Home’ will be on show in the window of the gallery until the afternoon of Friday 4th November.
Danny Howes says of the painting
For a decade we’ve seen the war in Afghanistan unfold through the eyes of the media. During this time I’ve often felt unease with our involvement there, while conversely my support for our troops doing an incredibly difficult job has never wavered. I wanted to make sense of this and to discover more about these men and women and the people they are there to help, by producing a series of paintings.
I was lucky enough to gain some insight from a friend who is an army doctor and keen amateur photographer. He allowed me access to photos he’d taken during his last tour, not the usual shots of war on the front line but predominantly of the servicemen and women in more relaxed surroundings when not out on patrol in the desert. I found the photos both inspiring and the perfect source material to use for the paintings.
My intention is for these paintings to convey a more unguarded and personal side to the soldiers’ lives, documenting the ordinary things we seldom see – cooking, reading, doing the laundry, writing to loved ones, sharing a meal – activities we all take for granted back home yet are essential for them to help retain some normality in the uncertain and extreme environment they live and work.
The painting given to the Help for Heroes auction captures a personal and timeless moment - a young soldier taking time to write a letter to his family. I wanted to acknowledge this crucial support played by families and organisations helping the soldiers back home, and donating one of the key pieces from the show to the Help for Heroes auction seemed a fitting way to make a my own contribution.
