Artist plans veterans project for Liberation Day

Nattaliya Besser
BBC News, Guernsey
BBC Artist Sam Bailey standing in front of a wall filled with artistic portraits of various military personnel. She is smiling, has long brown hair and is wearing a black dress with a white dotted pattern.BBC
At her busiest, Ms Bailey was sketching 27 portraits a day

An art teacher in Guernsey is planning a project to honour veterans ahead of Liberation Day.

Sam Bailey, a fine artist and teacher at Les Varendes High School and the Sixth Form Centre, is best known for her memorial art.

She has only moved to the bailiwick recently, but has worked with the Royal British Legion in the past, publishing books of her drawings with all the proceeds going to the charity.

Ms Bailey said she was hoping to do a similar project in the island honouring local veterans.

Memorial paintings and drawings done by fine artist Sam Bailey
Her first book The Mighty 456 was published in 2016, honouring soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan

She went to a veterans' breakfast in Guernsey with the Royal British Legion, getting ideas on how to showcase the former members of the armed forces.

Ms Bailey said: "Now I feel it is my chance to highlight our veterans and the amazing job that they do, continue to do, and have done.

"I get a huge amount of satisfaction from knowing that I bring joy to people that perhaps would have never smiled again."

She added: "They gave up their yesterday for us to have a tomorrow. We have to remember that and never forget it."

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