Some New Westminster veterans will be immortalized by members of the New Westminster Heritage Life Drawing Society.
Local artists gathered at the New Westminster branch of the Royal Canadian Legion on Sunday to draw two veterans who had agreed to pose for portraits.
"They sat for about two hours for us, which was really great," said Gillian Wright, a member of the New Westminster Heritage Life Drawing Society. "It was fantastic, it was just marvellous."
Former New Westminster MLA and city councillor Chuck Puchmayr, who has dabbled in drawing cartoons for a number of years, proposed the project.
"When I was on council we talked about recording and documenting the lives of some of our veterans," he recalled. "When I was in Austria, in my village, there was a memorial for the missing soldier. When I looked at it, it was so awe-inspiring."
Inspired to sketch that image on a recent visit to his hometown, Puchmayr also began thinking of veterans back home in New Westminster and thought it would be cool to sketch local veterans.
"There are a lot of other veterans, it's either too painful to talk about their past or they are too modest to talk about their past," Puchmayr said.
While attending the recent Artists on the River event, Puchmayr mentioned the idea to Wright. He contacted the local Legion and made arrangements for veterans to pose for portraits.
"We thought it was a great opportunity to get out there," Wright said. "Some of the artists are really keen on the kind of character you can get from an older face."
Because the members of the New Westminster Heritage Life Drawing Society usually draw models or each other, they relished the opportunity of drawing veterans. The artists and vet-erans took it in stride when the power went out during Sunday's session.
"Somewhere around 4 p.m. the electricity went out. We had sat in the front of the Legion," she said. "We could use the sunlight. It was shining in the window."
All eight artists who participated in Sunday's portraits drew pencil or charcoal drawings.
"It was a fantastic experience. The veterans were quite jovial," Wright said. "They wore their uniforms. That was great. That gives a really nice touch to the portraits. They were excellent subjects to draw. We would like to do some more."
The New Westminster Heritage Life Drawing Society hopes to display the artwork at the Legion on Remembrance Day.
"It was really fun," Wright said. "They are so much fun to draw. They have such character in their faces."
Puchmayr attended the gathering and drew caricatures of the two veterans.
