Arabella Dorman

Paul Rogers/The Times

Dorman in her studio in Chelsea, southwest London. She spent a month as an official war artist this autumn, embedded with the 2 Rifles Battle Group in Sangin

At work in Afghanistan. She spent several weeks with the Rifles as a war artist in Basra, Iraq, in 2007.

She returned with sketch books full of images that capture the end of the bloodiest six months suffered by any British unit in Afghanistan

A watercolour of the Helmand River, Afghanistan. "There was the juxtaposition of the beauty of the land that has been so devastated and is so catastrophically dangerous" Arabella Dorman

A watercolour of the District Centre in Sangin

Local men in Afghanistan. "Understandably journalists and photographers tend to focus on the drama and the action that they witness rather than the quieter moments in between," Dorman says.

An Afghan Soldier. When Dorman drew one Afghan, a man who worked as the gardener for the British base, he told her: "You haven’t captured the hate in my eyes"

A British soldier. "They fight for each other much more than they fight for Queen and Country"

"As a portrait painter I am drawn to the human drama, the psychology and bravery"

A Afghanistan Policeman. "In every face you see the same furrowed brow, the look that goes through you to what they’ve seen before"

The Rear gunner. Dorman attempted to depict the vastness of the Iraqi landscape

Posted by: Michelle Nielsen