Ukrainian girl who painted while bombs fell overhead pictured in new Cornwall art show
ITV News' Grace Pascoe meets the woman behind the project
A two-year-old girl who painted while bombs fell overhead is among those depicted in a new exhibition about the invasion of Ukraine.
A Cornish artist has painted more than 200 scenes, using the work of war photographers for inspiration.
Louise Pasterfield is currently working on her 206th portrait depicting the Ukrainian faces behind the war.
Just over 60 of them are on display together in Truro Cathedral in an exhibition called Portraits of Resilience.
Louise said: "I started it in February 2022 when the whole thing sort of kicked off.
"And I was just so kind of moved by what was happening and really kind of in shock that we were even having this war that I started to paint."
She mainly paints versions of war photographers' work but occasionally she’s sent photos from people living through the war - like Eva.
“She's two years old, and she's in the basement of her house with her family, there's no electricity, there's no heating, it's dark and the Russians are sort of bombing above, and they're very frightened.
"They don't know what's going to happen and little Eva is underground painting, she decided she wanted to paint," Louise explained.
The photo of 93-year-old Nina Gonchar was taken in January 2023 by Evgeniy Maloletka and Louise says her face speaks of deep sadness.
"She's an elderly woman and a lot of the elderly population really have suffered. You know, those that are in poor health, those having to be in a move to different areas, to safety.
"And she's one of these people and she just has such a a beautiful face, but one of such sort of deep sadness as well.
"She's lost her son, her daughter in law and her house. And I just sort of wanted to paint her because it was something just to capture her really, and to really feel her grief actually, with her," she said.
The children of Mariupol is a painting depicting children sleeping in an underground bunker in the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol in May 2022.
"This is actually when Mariupol was besieged and there were Russian troops all over and families went and hid in the Azovstal steelworks for protection actually in the basements, I painted the children sleeping underground, trying to keep safe from the Russians.
"Now, obviously, we all know what happened in Mariupol. It was taken over by the Russians, the children of families managed to escape. But a lot of the you know, the soldiers are still in prison there."
The exhibition is on until the 27 August in Truro Cathedral and Louise hopes it’ll be seen as a tribute to the resilience of the Ukrainian people.