Rita travels back in time to tell the stories behind the masks

A shielding artist has offered a powerful reminder of the importance of face masks by recreating an image taken the last time people battled a global pandemic.

Rita Cherry spent a month painting a photograph which was taken in America in 1918 when the Spanish flu claimed millions of lives.

The Johnstone woman, who has been painting all her life, says she felt compelled to recreate the picture with a woman warning,

“wear a mask or go to jail.”

It was given to her by agent Dougie Jackson who had been handed it by his godmother.

“As a local artist, I was interested and intrigued by the small photograph,” Rita told the Express.

“I wanted to paint it because it resonates with what is happening today and shows how relevant this image is during the coronavirus pandemic.

“I decided to bring it to life, particularly as masks are now mandatory and I thought it was prudent to highlight that in 1918 the instructions were clear - wear a mask or go to jail.”

Rita’s oil painting depicts a group of seven men and women wearing masks without the 1918 American railway station in the background.

And the 70- year- old, who has been shielding throughout the current crisis, has enjoyed imagining who the people in the picture were and what brought them to the unknown train station that morning.

“I felt as though I was getting into the characters of these people when I was painting them, “she said.

“They are all wearing masks but you can see the expression in their eyes. I kept imagining who they were and why they were there.

“I don’t know whether they were banded together by the photographer, if they were individual people, or had arrived there as a group.”

What is known is that the picture was taken in 1918 when America was in the grip of the Spanish flu which went on to kill a total of 675,000 people in the United States.

Possibly more infectious than the coronavirus, the flu infected almost a third of the global population, around 500 million people.

Rita, who is well- known throughout Renfrewshire for face painting at family fun days and events, has always loved painting and has recreated some of the world’s most famous pieces such as the Mona Lisa, as well as local landmarks such as Paisley’s Thread Mills Museum.

She added: “I have always painted so I decided a while back that I wanted to go and be trained a tutor, so that’s what I did and I have painted everything from the Mona Lisa to ballet dancer Sergio Polunin.”

Rita, who specialises in oil painting, exhibits her work on her own website www.cherryart.co.uk

I felt as though I was getting into the characters of these people when I was painting them