A Special Feature:
By Alan Patterson about his son’s heroic journey in Ukraine.
It was a crazy thing to do but my son Craig was never known for his level-headedness. He informed me last Autumn that he was heading out to Ukraine to volunteer
with an organisation evacuating civilians from the front line. If that wasn’t bad enough he was doing this in his own vehicle, driving across Europe alone to a war zone. All his leave from his civilian job was used up to go on this madcap adventure. Needless to say I had a lot of sleepless nights, when the nightly news was full of the horrors of what was going on in that troubled land. I couldn’t help but admire his commitment to help others as well as the chutzpah togo on such an adventure alone. When he then informed me that he was returning with a Ukrainian dog, after his stint was over, I just rolled my eyes. But then he told me the story why and again I was filled with admiration.
‘The house was destroyed, hit with a Russian missile’
One day his team had called at the house of a lady who had helped them with the evacuations. The house was destroyed, hit with a Russian missile.....and the lady was dead. The only life left in the rubble was her pet dog which was obviously traumatised. The dog took to Craig and he fell for the dog. He called it Olena, after its dead owner. Stray dogs are a big problem in Ukraine. Because of the war many have been abandoned as their owners have been killed or evacuated to safety. He knew the dog was doomed if it stayed and he had to bring it back to his home in Northern Ireland. The journey back with Olena was trouble free until he arrived in Ireland. Irish customs seized the dog for quarantine but after three months they kindly brought her to his home with no charge.
So that’s how I ended up painting this picture of Olena. Over the Summer I was in London and visited an exhibition at the Wallace Collection. It was an exhibition of dog portraits, painted by the likes of David Hockney and Edwin Landseer. There were some interesting stories behind the paintings. Then I thought of Olena - the dog rescued froma war zone and I knew I had to paint her. I tried to envisage the ruins she had come from as this wasn’t a normal pet portrait. Usually they’re done in a cosy, domestic setting or in a nice pastoral scene. Olena had come from devastation and trauma. The painting, which I painted in acrylic on canvas, now hangs in his house, the house that Olena now calls home. A million miles away from the horrors of the Ukrainian front line.
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