Cost of war etched in artwork

His father Raymond was a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II and worked on the Burma-Thai Railway after being captured in Singapore.

"The main theme of the work is my mother, Olive, embroidering a tablecloth while she waited for the return of her husband," he said.

"The tablecloth and other objects related to the story will be on display with the artwork at the City of Wanneroo's Wanneroo Remembers exhibition at the Wanneroo Library and Cultural Centre.

"The work focuses on the effect of war on wives, partners and families, who were also greatly affected.

"It was the wives of the soldiers, such as my mother, who literally had to pick up the pieces of war and help their men return to civilian and family life.

"When Raymond returned from the war, Olive immediately realised that the man she had married before the war was greatly changed and permanently so."