An artist has painted four âpoetic and empoweringâ portraits using 70s-style wallpaper of West Indian children from the Windrush generation to commemorate their 75th anniversary.
Yvadney Davis, 42, from Nunhead, south London, created an art exhibition called Proverbs of the Windrush Child as a âlove letterâ to the Windrush generation and to honour her Jamaican grandparents.
Proverbs of the Windrush Child exhibition at the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton (Yvadney Davis/PA)
She interviewed four people about their life in the Caribbean before and after arriving in England, and painted them on a linen canvas to highlight the sacks used to âstore grain and coffeeâ in the West Indies.
Ms Davis came up with the idea for the exhibition when she spoke to her Jamaican father-in-law â who moved to England as a child â on Christmas Day after making him the islandâs hibiscus drink, Sorrel.
âIt struck me that we always focus on the adult who made the decision to come here, but there were so many children who didnât have a choice,â she told the PA news agency.
âThey were left with relatives or friends and grew up in an abundance of nature â a different way of living that was very community-focused.
Photo of artist Yvadney Davis, 42 (Yvadney Davis/PA)
âThen, suddenly, they were sent to live in England and they didnât have a choice in that, they may not have known their parents or remembered them, they may have had new siblings.
âThen they had to deal with racism, probably for the first time in their life ⦠I wanted to give them a voice and share their learnings, which is why I called it proverbs.â
The mother-of-two painted the four individualsâ quotes âswirling out of their headsâ in a semi-circle on the portrait.
The portraits were painted on a linen canvas to draw attention to the linen sacks commonly used for storing grain and coffee in the West Indies, Ms Davis said.
One of Ms Davisâs portraits of Yvonne Bailey-Smith, author of The Day I Fell Off My Island (Yvadney Davis/PA)
She explained: âI used a lot of vintage wallpaper from the 70s because the houses that I went into growing up were still decorated in this very distinctive style⦠it was distinctly working class.
âEach of the ones (wallpaper) I chose kind of reminds me of the Caribbean in their own way, like the water, the sea, the sun.
âI also used linen canvas, because itâs quite rough, and thatâs what they would use to store grain and coffee.
âSo, I wanted that element of back home.â
Ms Davis described her painting technique as âvery layeredâ using âa lot of paint strokesâ.
âItâs kind of like a rhythm in terms of how I paint and thatâs why people comment on my paint strokes,â she said.
She used a quote from Jamaican political activist Marcus Garvey to emphasise the importance of telling the stories of the Windrush generation.
Mother of two Yvadney Davis with Yvonne Bailey-Smith  (Yvadney Davis/PA)
Ms Davis said: âMarcus Garvey has a quote, itâs like, you need to know where youâre coming from in order to go forward.
âWeâre built on the back of people that made a lot of sacrifices, financially, their pride; they were qualified to do things and came here to work in the lowest roles.
âMy granny passed a couple of years ago⦠they didnât come here for nothing, they came here to build something for us who are left.
âFor Caribbean kids, Iâve seen it with my own children in school, the education system will label them as worthless, thugs, menaces and violent.
âSo, I think itâs important when we look at Windrush to have some pride in where we came from.
âWe came from very little, but from that little weâve got the carnival, we created Desmondâs (TV sitcom), the whole music scene, art, food.â
Proverbs of the Windrush Child is currently on display at the Black Cultural Archives in Brixton until September 10th.