In 1939 my father, Richard Przewlocki, was a small boy living peacefully with his family in Dubno, a small town in Eastern Poland. At the beginning of world war 2 Russia invaded Poland and Richard’s father, a policeman, was taken from the family home never to be seen again. Richard, his mother and brother were deported to Siberia to work in forced labour camps. Richard’s little brother died in Siberia of pneumonia and he and his mother  made their way from Siberia to the Ural mountains, Uzbekistan, Iran (then Persia) and eventually to Africa, where they lived for seven years as refugees. 

Richard and his mother eventually found a new home in Australia and started to live a normal life. In his seventies Richard started to write his story down and the memories of the years spent with his mother on a perilous journey came flooding back. 

This year I decided to illustrate Richard’s story  as part of  #the100dayproject on Instagram, combining Richard’s text with my  paintings. This is a small selection of the pictures starting with Richard’s family in Poland and continuing through to him seeking work  as a teenager in Africa.

Julie Delves, September 2018

Julie Delves is an artist, maker and teacher living in Canberra, Australia. She has long been inclined to make sense of the world around her through drawing and painting, and her sketchbook is never far away. She is very inspired by the natural world and also loves story telling through her work. “Richard’s Story” developed as a collaboration with her father as they supported each other through her mother’s final illness and decline. It is a work of love and shared creativity and she is tremendously proud of it.