An accomplished painter has achieved his dream of having one final exhibition thanks to Rochester Cathedral.

From an illustrator on BBC’s Wildlife on One to painting portraits of the Queen Mother, Dennis Hussey has had a long and varied career.

But the 72-year-old from Rainham has spent the past three years working on a series of 30 paintings based on the indigenous people of the USA.

Each painting, which start in size at 4ft by 3ft, took him between 80 and 100 hours to paint.

They were due to be put on display in America, but the deal fell through and last year he put out an appeal through the Medway Messenger in the hope of finding an exhibition space.

The article was spotted by the Dean of Rochester, Canon Philip Hesketh, who said: “It was the initial appeal about his loss of exhibition space after three years of work and asking whether anyone could any help out. I felt compelled to respond.

“Then when I met Dennis I found him a really amazing person who had done such a lot of work with people in the community. The subject of the Native America Indians appealed to the need to highlight the plight of indigenous cultures and the way they have been exploited, and also the importance of the created order within their native spirituality.

“God’s spirit permeates our world and we are called by God to care for the natural world and not exploit it for our own ends. This was something the Native American Indians instinctively knew.”

The exhibition at the cathedral runs until Wednesday and on some of the days Mr Hussey will be painting in the cathedral.

Mr Hussey started as an apprentice in London at the age of 15, and went on to paint portraits of the Queen Mother, Michael Jackson, Charlton Heston, John Wayne and others.

He now works as a teacher in his studio above the Demelza charity shop in Station Road, Rainham.