Cottage by the Lake

Cottage by the Lake
The inspiration for this painting came from a magazine photo that showed only the reflections in the water. I used those reflections to re-create the cottage and then used my imagination to finish the painting. When I did this painting I was living in Apopka, Florida. When I left Apopka to come to Perth, Australia I had it framed and gave it as a gift to my good friend Lowell Trent who lives in a log cabin in Apopka .

The Number Two!

This abstract drawing was inspired by the number "2" Look carefully and you can see all the two's. They are connected to each other, some overlap each other and some are somewhat distorted and stretched. Then of course the whole thing is mirrored to for this design.

Art on Zazzle

View more gifts at Zazzle.

Handpainted Journal with Aboriginal style Dot Art, and Carved Gecko

This little guestbook used some paper off-cuts that were going to be thrown out by the local printer.  All the coloured beads are handmade, the black ones are pony beads.  The prints on the inside of the covers came from an out-dated calender.  The gecko carving is from Bali. The painting on the front cover is my handiwork.  I have made two different journals similar to this one and they sold like hot cakes.  I think people like the Abroginal dot art. 

Pencil Drawing - Hakea Ambigua - Botanical Specimen

 

This is another drawing I did from an illustration I found in a garden book I got out of the library.  the information about the plant (below) is stuff I googled and not from my own knowledge ... I am not that smart!

Brief Description
Amanda Spooner, Monday 23 June 2003

Erect, rounded shrub, 1–3 m high. Fl. white, cream, yellow, Sep–Oct. Sandy clay or sand over sandstone, gravel. Hillslopes. Distribution: SW: AW, ESP, JF, MAL.

Scientific Description
Chris Hollister and Nicholas S. Lander, Tuesday 8 April 2008

Habit and leaf form. Shrubs, 1–3 m high. Leaves alternate, leaves 40–100 mm long overall. Leaf blade 40–100 mm long, 5–18 mm wide, undissected, elliptic or linear, flat; margins entire; indumentum absent.
Inflorescence and floral features. Inflorescence axillary, racemose. Flowers pedicellate, cream. Pedicel 3–4 mm long. Perianth (perigone) 5–6 mm long. Pistil 4–5.5 mm long. Pollen presenter conical.

Fossil branch hand cast plate.

Fossil branch hand cast plate.
This is not two different plates, but the same plate painted, then re-painted in a different colour. It has actually changed colours again since I took these photos. It is what I like to call a ... Fossil Cast Plate. It was cas in a mold made from a piece of backing board, some nails to mark out the circle. A piece of scrap formica place inside the nails to form a circle, and an upturned plastic platter of some sort (it's been a long time ... I can't remember what I actually used.
The branches that formed the "fossils" came from a lemon tree, and the fruit looking parts of the design were slices of green lemon.

Cottage Painting on dome

I love the dome shaped casting. I cast this one in a plastic tea tray from the $2.00 shop. It has hooks at the back for hanging. Hand painted with acrylics and coated with Royal Coat by Plaid.

Old suitcase with decoupage pink blossoms and hydrangers

Old decoupage suitcase. The op-shop did not want this. They put it in the rubbish and I spotted it and salvaged it. Decoupage transformed it into a beauty. Background is very dark blue. Prints were from wrapping paper. Ribbons were hand painted later. Varnished with clear water based varnish.
The finished suitcase was donated to a fund raising group called "Camp Quality".

Hand cast plate with artifact cracks.

Hand cast plate with artifact cracks.
This plate was made using the same method as the one in the previous post. Fossil branch hand cast plate. , but this time, instead of using branches, I used plastecine to form the negative impressions of the cracks befor pouring the plaster mixture. I migh mention, that I do not use pure plaste of paris, but mid it in with som paper pulp. The same kind of pulp you would use to make handmade paper.
After painting the plate with a faux antique bronze finish, I added some gold gilding to parts of the cracks to give a more rich effect.

Christmas Island Crab

This is another type of crab found on Christmas Island. This was done from a photo. He is so cute with the big beady eyes.

Christmas Island Golf Course

This painting was done for a very special lady who landscaped the Christmas Island Golf course. She was originall from somewhere in England so I guess the painting is there now. I removed lots of the trees to improve the look of the painting. Christmas Island was much too small for me. Although it is quite beautiful and has lots of interesting wild life and caves I soon felt clostrophobic living on such a small Island. I guess I missed being able to just go shopping for art supplies and tool and stuff like that. On Christmas Island you need to order special things through the local shops then wait for the next ship to come in to get you stuff! I spent most of my time there painting.

Apple Cider

I started doing this painting while living in Florida back in the late 70's. My room mate liked the wine that came in that bottle. The original painting had a brick red background but I never liked it. Finally in 2005 and now living in Perth Australia, I got inspired to re-do the background and added the fringe on the cloth and finally signed the painting. It won second prize in it's catagory at the local Liddelow Homestead Arts & Craft Club annual art exhibition.

Paper Mache fruit bowl with decoupage apples and blossoms.

Paper Mache bowl, molded over a plastic bowl. The apples and blossoms are colour copies of my original artwork. The background is dark green ... not quite as dark as it appears in the photo. I used alternating layers of newspaper and reject paper from a printer to make the paper mache bowl. I then painted the finished bowl with gesso, and sanded it down to make the surface a bit smoother. It is still un-even but this adds to its's charm. Makes a good fruit bowl. Cost would be for glue, prints and paint.

Gold hibiscus fossil cast plate

Gold hibiscus fossil cast plate
Another one of my hand cast plaster plates. This one is almost two feet in diameter. It was cast over a branch from a hibiscus bush. The impression was then gilded with gold leaf. The inside edges of the plate "bowl" were hand painted with very find liner brush. The background colour of the plate is my favourite colour, dark green.

Pansy Folk Art Plate

Pansy Folk Art Plate
Another one of my plaster cast plates. Hand painted folk art style with acrylic paints. The background is a very dark green. The plate is about 18 inches in diameter and was cast in a plastic plant pot saucer.