About me

Hello, & thanks for dropping by!

I'm Alison Archbold an Australian multi media artist of more than 30 years. That's a bit 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, faux finishes, & have also touched on textiles.

Recently I decided to have some of my designs created on products, like my new Tea towels, budgie keyrings, & ceramic coasters, so that I could reach more people with my art. This way I can have affordable art for everyone everyday, on useful, quirky items, but still have the time to work on many other original pieces that I'm feeling passionate about.

I have always loved variety, & need to be working on different ideas all the time, that's just the way it is when you have a busy head.

Hope you enjoy the site, I will be adding new items in the coming weeks & months.

For those who are game, a longer more detailed version of my creative journey is below.

 

LONGER VERSION, ..... for those with time!

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, & could also be a hugely sarcastic character at times, but we all loved Dazza.

Originally, I started with hand made jewellery, & ceramics, which included huge platters, teapots & the like. Mosaic table tops, furniture painting & revamping, were next, then I 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 weird & wonderful 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 in Page ACT.

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. I loved how this project turned out.

Next I was commissioned to hand paint coffins & caskets by a couple of local funeral parlors which was certainly different. Though it made me happy to bring some joy to families in their time of grief, it was still quite confronting. After painting around 10, I remember being asked to paint a childs coffin, & as a mum with very young children it broke my heart. I had to move on to other works.

My hand painted ceramic pieces & painted furniture wares were in shops all around the place, & work kept flowing in. There was never one day like the last.  It was always exciting with new opportunities constantly arising.

Three magazines & another media outlet covered my work during this time, & I was asked by one of them, Australian Hand Made Magazine, to contribute a few articles on my work, with step by step instructions. I felt blessed to be able to do what I loved, working from my studio, & still be able to be a Mum.

I was now working as an art teacher at Artisan art & craft store, & several other smaller shops, & ran occasional art classes from my home studio as well.

At the same time, I was "put forward" for an audition to be the new face of the art segment on a TV show that was about to start filming. The audition went really well. I got a call from the recruitment people, & I clearly remember their words.

"We've got good news & bad news", "The good news is, you got the job, ....the bad news is, the sponsor has pulled out funding, & it won't be going ahead"........ I remember the disappointment, but it obviously wasn't meant to be.

So onward with the next chapter. Around 2003 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 really was an amazing thing to be a part of, & I had been working on these exterior artworks for some time, so it was fantastic to be able to showcase an example of what I had been doing. 

I went on to sell many large transportable outdoor garden murals that could be installed in private homes. 

After that, came the corporate jobs where I was fortunate enough to win the contracts & be commissioned to do faux finish works on hundreds of concrete pillars on building sites. Most were on major new builds, including Canberra's new "Australian Taxation Office" (approx 300 columns), "Section 84"(around 100 columns) in the city, & "Canberra's New Building Project"(many including 3 storey high columns) also in the City. 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.

I also completed lots of renovation work, including damage transformation using my own techniques & methods in Westfield Belconnen. It was an incredible time, & I developed more skills that I would take forward into future works.

Eventually exhaustion caught up with me, as I was doing long days, & it was also physical work, lugging heavy buckets of paint around, climbing scaffolding & ladders. I was becoming drained. I've always worked alone with my art, & the physical aspect, & long hours on top of running the farm & all the creatures, was getting too much, so I went back to working an 8 - 4 job for a bit, & squeezed everything else into the evenings & weekends.

We had been at the farm 3 years when we built & set up my new art studio. A few years later, I was able to start running various art classes again, in between the other creations & when time permitted.

It was around 2015, I went back to full time art, & during the next years with prompting from a good friend, I designed a range of animal greeting cards & prints, based mostly on many rescue animals. These have become my rescue range of dog & cat cards, which I have added new designs to regularly. 

In these series, the majority of original paintings were done in watercolour, & they have now grown to nearly 200 designs featuring the rescue animals, Australian native animals & various other creatures including my beloved budgies.

We have been proud to sponsor & donate to Australian animal rescues since 2015, which have included Hear No Evil, deaf dog rescue, Angryface Transport, Rainbow Paws, 4Lyfe Rescue, Wildcare & others. People who work in rescue are often unsung hero's, it can be a really tough gig. 

It was an honor to have my cards used exclusively by Animal Referral Hospital in Canberra as their sympathy cards for nearly 7 years & to also custom design all their Christmas cards over this period. 

My cards are available from our website, & from many wonderful vets & shops around Australia. The support I received from local & Australian businesses has been incredible, & I'm still very thankful for that.

Recently I've been adding more budgie inspired pieces which has always been part of my plan. Now available are my original designed budgie keyrings & ceramic coasters & Aussie made tea towels.

I'm also working on a series of 1 meter x 1 meter textured original paintings depicting budgerigars.  These are part of my Alison's Wonderful Land series.

There will be 12 works in the finished series which I look forward to exhibiting once complete. I'm working on number 6 at the moment, & the inspiration for these has been within me for decades. These works are from my memories, & experiences, with a touch of imagination & whimsy.

So in summing up art & life wise....

I cannot express how grateful I am for our farm, the sunshine, & to be surrounded by nature & animals every day. It truly is a blessing. This choice of life is what has allowed me to be so creative.

Hubby & I set out to create our special place 18 years ago when we bought this bare farm with just 4 gum trees & a few bushes. Now with a heck of a lot of hard work, vision & help from Mother nature, it has transformed into a magical beautiful place, that we get to enjoy everyday.

I remember we used to sit outside having a drink in the evenings, after working all day, willing the trees to grow & establish...saying "One day, this will be beautiful".

 

......."One day" is now!

 

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!

 

https://www.facebook.com/archbolddesign

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