A retired police officer battling a terminal brain tumour has presented 23 pencil drawings and two full length paintings to the hospital staff who treated him.
Alan Dewar, who lives in Gartocharn, was diagnosed in January and was admitted at the end of the month to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital (QEUH), where he underwent an operation to remove as much of the tumour as possible.
Mr Dewar, who also studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1979 to 1981, presented 21 drawings to the nurses and two paintings to the surgeons last Wednesday.
He had previously given two other drawings to two nurses while he was in hospital.
Alan explained: “I was told when I was going for my operation that it might affect my speech and my memory.
“I thought I would take my sketch book and pencils in with me to see if I could still draw afterwards.
“During my sleepless nights in the hospital, I came up with the idea to draw the nurses.
“I had hours of lying awake and I thought that it might be a good idea to draw them after my operation.
“I had the operation on Friday, January 29 to remove the tumour and it took me a few days to get over so I did my first drawing a few days later.
“That was of the first nurse we saw going in – who was on the admission team. She had a lovely cheerful smile. So, I decided to draw her. I got a photograph of her first on my iPad then started my sketch.
“I showed her a past drawing and said I was wanting to do portraits and would that be okay. I then started to complete 23 head and shoulder pencil drawings plus paintings of the two surgeons.
“I presented those first two portraits to the nurses when I was still in the hospital. The admissions nurse was quite emotional. Unfortunately, I didn’t see the other one.
“I said to the other nurses about my plans and they all seemed quite happy for me to sketch them.”
Alan took photographs of 23 nurses that looked after him before sketching them.
He then decided to paint the two surgeons that carried out his operation.
One day he was lying in his room when he heard a doctor say that he was a “real” artist.
“That perked me up,” Alan continued.
“I asked if I could paint him, which he agreed to. I then took a full figure photograph of him and painted the other surgeon who completed my stitches as well.
“The drawings take me about three days to complete. It would normally take me about three hours in total, but I can only concentrate for about an hour then I need to take a break.
“I wanted to see if I could still draw. This shows I can still be creative and participate in life and I would like to think that gives people who are struggling with an illness hope.
“I want to thank the doctors and nurses for all their help. This is my way of giving something back to them.”
After his treatment at the QEUH, Alan completed a six-week programme of radiotherapy at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre at Gartnavel together with chemotherapy.
He also received care and support from the team at Maggie’s Cancer Support. Alan is now in the process of drawing nine of the therapists at the Beatson and six carers from Maggie’s.
He will present those finished works at a later date.
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