We’re proud to be using pollution-reducing Airlite paint for this mural! Airlite paint is a completely mineral paint that has a lower environmental impact than any other traditional paint. What’s more it lets your walls eliminate pollution, bacteria and viruses! Find out more about Airlite here.

Mural to celebrate Inspirational local community leader Marie Costa. Marie is part of the cultural fabric of Portsmouth, where she has worked as a nurse, teacher, carer, businesswoman, university governor and community volunteer since the 1960s. She has been described as ‘formidable’, inspirational’, and ‘a doer’ and has worked tirelessly for decades to promote intercultural understanding.

The mural will be painted on the very prominent rear wall of the law courts which faces the creative and cultural central hub of the University where students and community cross daily. It feels so important to celebrate individuals of substance to act as inspiration to Portsmouth’s youth.

Artist Bio:

Dreph is a visual artist working across a wide range of media. With a focus on portraiture and painting the human figure, Dreph’s subjects are everyday people, friends, family or those he meets whilst painting in the streets. With exploration of colour and an attention to sartorial detail, he uses his work to tell his subjects stories.

He is inspired, as much by 80s British sci-fi comics and New York subway art, as he is the old masters. Dreph is passionate about the cultural and creative exchange that can be shared whilst travelling and this has profoundly informed his practice. After 3 decades of street based painting, Dreph’s work can be found in Asia, Africa, the UAE, Central, South and North America and throughout Europe.

Dreph is a former student and now an Illustration lecturer at Portsmouth University. He lives and works in London.