About me

Hello, & thanks for dropping by!

I'm Alison Archbold an Australian multi media artist for more than 30 years. That's scary when you say it out loud.

Animals, art, our farm, gardens & budgies pretty much sum me up, ...& dogs, I absolutely love dogs.

Creatively, I work in everything from water colour & acrylic painting, murals, mosaics, ceramics & quite a few more.  

Recently I decided to have some of my designs made into products so that I could reach more people with my art. This way I can have affordable art for everyone everyday, on useful, quirky products, but still have the time to work on many other pieces that I'm feeling passionate about.

Hope you enjoy the site, I will be adding lots of new things in the coming weeks.

For those who are game, a longer more detailed version is below.

 

LONGER VERSION, If you've got time on your hands

I started my business Archbold Design back in 2000, & used my surname to honor my late father who had passed away when I was 21. I felt it was a way of keeping his name alive a little longer. My dear old Dad was funny, creative, & a hugely sarcastic character at times, but we all loved Dazza.

Originally, I started with hand made jewellery, hand painted ceramics, which included huge platters, teapots & the like, mosaic table tops, furniture painting & revamping, then moved on to large scale murals, & Trompe L'oeil. (meaning trick of the eye 3D paintings that look like they can be walked into). 

I took on various other mediums & projects, as I have always loved experimenting & trying new things. Plus people kept asking for all sorts of works, & I never said no in those days!

During this period, I was selling my art at the Bus Depot Markets in Canberra, which led to lots of commissions including several large scale murals in & around Canberra. The largest of which was a 15 meter long landscape painting featuring birds in the dementia unit at Villagio Retirement Village. Around the same time, I also did up an entire restaurant at the Queanbeyan Kangaroo's Football Club in an Asian inspired theme, which included several murals & a huge amount of other design work.

Next I was commissioned to hand paint several coffins & caskets by local funeral parlors which was certainly different, but as long as I was bringing some joy to families with my art, I was happy.

My art pieces were in shops all around the place, & work kept flowing in.

Several magazines & other media outlets covered my work during this time, & I was also asked by Australian Hand Made Magazine to contribute a few articles on my work. I felt blessed to be able to do what I loved, all whilst being surrounded by my many creatures. Bliss!

The next chapter brought more excitement when I was asked to design a desert mural with 3D windows as part of a display at Canberra's world famous flower show "Floriade", It was an amazing thing to be a part of.

After that came the corporate jobs, where I was fortunate enough to be commissioned to do faux finishes on hundreds of concrete pillars for some major new builds including Canberra's new Australian Taxation Office & others I can't name. This work went on for a couple of years, was very lucrative, & to be honest it was a fantastic time in my life, even though it was bloody hard work.

It was an incredible time, & I developed more skills that I would take forward into future works, but it was also physically draining, & I was exhausted. I've always worked alone with my art, & the physical aspect on top of running the farm, all the animals & garden to tend to when I got home was getting too much, so I had to go back to working from home again.

So around 15 years ago, I set up my art studio at our farm just outside Canberra, ran some art classes again, & also eventually designed a range of animal greeting cards & prints. Paintings were done predominantly in watercolour, & has now grown to nearly 200 designs featuring many rescue dogs & cats, & various other creatures including my beloved budgies.

I was honored to have my cards used exclusively by Animal Referral Hospital in Canberra as their sympathy cards for nearly 7 years, & my cards are also available in several other vets around Australia, & in many wonderful shops also. The support I received from local & Australian businesses has been incredible, & I'm still very thankful for that.

......If you're still here, you deserve a medal!

Basically, all my works come from the inspiration around me at the farm, my lifelong love of animals, & my special Budgerigars.

I love variety, & will always be trying new things. My story continues, the business is always growing & evolving, & to be honest, I love the fact that it is constantly changing, & I never quite know what I will be creating next. I think as an artist, you should be free to create whatever you feel from within.

To catch up on the past few years, & evolution here at the farm & studio, you can see all the happenings, the dogs, the chooks & budgies on Facebook & Instagram!

Thank you so much for having a read, & I hope you can be inspired to be creative!

https://www.facebook.com/archbolddesign

https://www.instagram.com/archbold_design_australia/