Earlier this year, I was commissioned by Dudley College of Technology to create a series of portrait paintings to complement the students’ Refugee Photography project.

The idea behind this was to highlight the incredible courage, determination and resilience of today’s refugees while raising awareness of the many people throughout history who have been welcomed into the community of Dudley, West Midlands, UK.

After meeting the refugees and hearing their individual stories, I discussed the project with them to see if they would like me to paint their portrait. I then looked through the excellent portrait photographs taken of them by students at the college to choose the images best suited to a painting.

On this occasion, I chose to paint in watercolours as I felt this would be best suited to the exhibition space at Dudley Archives. The medium of water is also intended as a metaphor for the many miles and seas these people have crossed in order to seek sanctuary from war and political unrest in their respective countries of The Ukraine, Syria, Sudan, Iraq and many more.