About face

Imagine having a tumour the size of a cricket ball removed from your cheek, your jaw split to correct a childhood deformity or your face rebuilt using bone from your hip after an assault with a baseball bat. Would having your portrait painted help you get over the trauma? Maxillofacial surgeon Iain Hutchison had a hunch it might. So he called in Glasgow artist Mark Gilbert, who spent a year at St Bartholomew’s and the Royal London Hospital painting his patients before, after and during their surgery. The results will be exhibited at the National Portrait Gallery in London…