My studio on top of a mountain in Victoria, Australia is situated in a busy tourist area that was established in the late 1800's and was known as "Melbournes Playground" Over the decades that we have lived here there have been many changes, from a heavily European community to the fabulously rich and diverse Villages they are today.

This work was created with a wish to present the idealised English cottage garden that is very common in the area. A unique environment surrounded by large areas of National Parks housing tree ferns and huge Mountain Ash eucalypts.

The flowers depicted collected from our 100 year old garden originally established by the "spinster" sisters Alice, Ethel and Gertrude Culley in the 1930's. Europeans in a rich Australian forest, it truly took a Village that still exists today.

The glass vases and jars date from the sister Culleys time of the 1930's through to the 1950/60's when they passed away. Their service to charity and their beloved church next door, their fund raising Garden parties with "best flower" competitions and cake and novelty stalls. Their time and efforts for the Olinda Blind Auxilliary. Selfless ladies and the village they lived in, a spectrum of floral colour, community and life...

• Size (h w d): 81.3 x 106.7 x 3.5 cm
• Medium: Oil On Canvas
• Subject Matter: still life
• Type: Painting
• Framed Size (h w d): 84.3 x 109.7 x 5.5 cm