Portrait Artist-Weddings,Family Portrait Artist,Oil Portraits of Wedding,Family,Children,Dog Portrait Artist Commission Paintings for Pets,Family,Weddings

Geraldton,Northampton to Norcia Western Australia

admin — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 08:01:12 +0000

Again this slideshow will show you what we viewed along the way. It is a long slideshow so please be patient while it loads.

The slideshow starts with Geraldton then we drove into the countryside surrounding it.

Then onto Northampton and onto Norcia which is a Catholic Monastry small township. The photos make the buildings look in better condition than what they actually were.

Click to view the Slideshow >>>>>

Jurien Bay,Cervantes,Pinnacles,Monkey Mia

admin — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 07:50:17 +0000

Here is another slideshow to give you an idea of what we saw along the way. Of course there were more scenes of wildflowers but by this time I decided I would put those flowers in one blogs article so you can view the range of flowers we saw.

Click to view the SLIDESHOW >>>>>>>

The Pinnacles …..

Along the Turquoise Coast the foredune and sandblows continue to accumulate white lime-rich sand. Hardy plants struggle to stabalise the shifting sands with deep binding roots.
Here,where fire and wind have removed the stabilising vegetation,these older dunes of golden quartz sand reveal their secret.
The Pinnacles Desert!
The Pinnacles have been sculptured by acidic ground water beneath the dunes.
Once the Pinnacles are exposed by shifting sands they are further scultured by wind,rain and sun.

Canarvon,Coral Bay to Kalbarri,WA

admin — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 03:36:37 +0000

I think the photos speak for themselves in portraying how interesting these places are. In the below slideshow I have included photos from Canarvon,Coral Bay,Kalbarri and Rest Area characters.

Please view the Slideshow >>>>>>>>

In Coral Bay there is a large fish that likes to hang out under a charter boat. Merv was surprised to find that this fish was named Merv so that is why we included him.

Unforeseen hazards of Travelling

admin — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 08:16:30 +0000

Well our next visit was to go to Karajini National Park where we would meet up with Peter and Sue Cox but just outside of Port Hedland we got a flat tyre. We turned around and went to National Tyres to have it fixed. After waiting 2 hours we were told he did not have the tyre. It was no good and we would have to travel to Karratha for a new tyre.

Merv did not like to be without a spare tyre especially as we have to drive along isolated dirt roads at time so we had to change our plans for Karajini National Park and drive to Karratha. On the way we got a huge crack in our windscreen which had grown in size by the time we got to Karratha.We only got to Karratha at 5pm but they fixed it quickly for us and we went off to find the next rest area.

Now the irony of all this happening to us was it was only just over a year ago when we did our flight around Australia and Rod Waldon encountered airplane troubles just outside of Port Hedland and had to touch down at Pannawonica. Now we started encountering a string of troubles on this trip.

Road to Pannawonica

After a few more disappointments we finally found a lovely rest area by a river. This place was so pretty. And the sunset was somehow healing after a very tense and upsetting day. We were even more upset because Peter and Sue would be wondering what had happened to us as we were to meet them at Karajini and have a BBQ. The poor phone reception in places had made it hard for us to contact them but we managed it and they were going to go ahead to Tom Price after Karajini.

Here are some photos of our rest area that night and the next morning….

The next day we decided to go to the next good rest area and try to rest up after the previous stressful day. However as lovely as the scenery was it looked like we were going to do a more thorough job of shattering out windscreen when a few wedgetailed eagles wanted to fly in front of our motorhome. This was a real heart started in the morning!!!!

Wedgetailed Eagles - too close for comfort

Well here is our next rest area. We have found the free rest areas much more scenic than staying at caravan parks. The visitors to the rest areas are more relaxed and friendly as well.

Although the temperature for today was suppose to be 35 degrees we enjoyed a lovely breeze off the water. We cooked our food over an open fire that night which was lovely. Other campers had a sing-a-long.

We got a lovely early start the next day. Here are some of the beautiful wildflowers that grew wild everywhere.

The wildflowers

Merv wanted me to show you some of the road trains as we passed along the way.

Finally we saw the sign to Coral Bay and drove in there and stayed at the Caravan Park.

I will get some photos together now to add in the next blog.

Broome-Part 2 Horizontal Falls Seaplane Adventure

admin — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 06:48:11 +0000

Okay this was Merv’s great adventure….

A tour bus picked him up early in the morning to start the adventure. The itinerary was to explore….

Beagle Bay where he would visit the church made of shells.

Visit Cape Leveque and enjoy a walk along the white sandy beach then onto visit the One Arm Point Community for an informative tour of the Aquaculture hatchery, home to turtles, tropical reef fish and trochus shell. Hand feed huge barramundi and friendly turtles. One Arm Point is on the Southern tip of the Buccaneer Archipelago making it the best place possible to start the scenic flight across thousands of islands. A 14 seat luxury seaplane departs from One Arm Point air strip and flies at low level over the horizontal waterfalls before landing on the calm waters of Talbot Bay.

The the next leg of the journey is to get on board a 600hp fast boat “Jet Stream” and experience an exhilarating thrill ride through the Horizontal Waterfalls with the highly experienced skipper. This is followed by a commentary on the flora,fauna and history of the region. There is also the opportunity to swim in the safety of our huge shark cage and experience snorkelling with our resident sharks from the safety of the cage and feed these amazing creatures.

Then it is time for a nice BBQ barramundi lunch on board our luxury vessel before flying back to Broome

To See a slideshow of some of the pictures please click this link

Now Merv did take videos of the speed boat ride but I had to edit them and have not worked how to put it all together and still have time to have a holiday so that will have to wait.

Now we are off to Karajini National Park….

Broome – Part 1- Sunset on the Pearl Lugger

admin — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 05:18:24 +0000

Broome was wonderful to visit again. We did encounter some difficulty getting a place to stay with the dogs. We found that the Pistol club would take us but was told this would be for only a short time as the club had to soon close down and we could try getting into the PCYC who would take dogs until September 1st.

While in Broome I wanted to visit the markets and as many pearl jewellery shops as I could. However before we could do this we went on a lovely trip to view the sunset on board the Pearl Lugger “Intombi”. Intombi is one of the original wooden luggers still afloat today. It was built in Fremantle for the Broome pearler, Penn blick. She worked the waters off Broome for sometime and later became part of the legendary Streeter & Male fleet. She was later rebuilt to bigger dimensions in 1929.

A bus collected us and others to take us to the beach where a small boat took us to the lovely rebuilt Lugger. Sue and Peter enjoyed this trip with us. Here are some photos

Click any of these above images to enlarge…..

We later went and explored the township of Broome once again and made some pearl purchases to take home. Here is a sculpture in town typifying the pearling history of Broome. There are so many lovely shops in Broome as well as clothing shops that are unique to this area. The famous Cable Beach is lovely with it’s stripped umbrellas and sun chairs and we made the most of swimming in the Indian Ocean which was very refreshing.

Finally it came time to visit the Broome Markets held every saturday and sunday.

There are many stalls under the shade of the Boab Trees. Alot of these stalls are selling either clothing or pearl or shell jewellery. There are some paintings and silk scarves to also purchase as well as food stalls.

In the next blog Merv takes a trip with Sue and Peter to explore the horizontal waterfalls, Cape Leveque, swim with the sharks and visit a church made of shells. I chose not to go as I wanted time to explore the shops in town instead. I still remember the horizontal waterfalls, and Cape Leveque from last year.

Giant Boab and Prison Boab Trees

admin — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 10:09:45 +0000

We found one that was very large at a Rest area. It was massive. So large on the outside and many people who had visited it had written onto the bark of the tree which was a shame really. Over the years they had put the date of their autographs on the tree. The engravings had grown in size with the branches of the tree. It would have been interesting just how old some of the engravings really were.

Here are some more photos to give you an ideas of it’s size. Please click the photos to see them larger.

Inside this large tree shown below is a hollow room large enough for a person to lie down inside of it. It would have been wonderful shelter for someone if they needed it.

This photo gives you some idea of what the inside of the tree looks like.

Here is a photo of the Boab Prison Tree. We found this outside of Derby,Western Australia. This tree was where the kidnapped Aboriginals were chained and kept before taking them to their next location.

Below is a photo of what they looked like. The interesting part about this photo is the Boab tree looks the same as it does today.

That was in the 1900′s. Here is a photo of the other side of the tree which looks quite different.

Mysterious Tunnel Creek, Western Australia

admin — Sun, 28 Aug 2011 09:18:46 +0000

Tunnel Creek flows through a water worn tunnel beneath the Napier Range which is part of an extensive fossilised barrier reef from Devonian times 360 million years ago. This tunnel has lovely textured and coloured limestone rocks at the mouth of the tunnel. Deeper into the tunnel we could have waded through the tunnel where fresh water crocodiles,crustaceans,larger frogs,snakes,rainbow fish,bony bream,spangled perch, fork tailed Catfish as well as an abundance of insects live. On occasions there are also bats but we found none of these on our visit. As it was very dark and we did not know how deep the water was going to be we simply took these photos.

The tunnel is 750m long and carved out of limestone by the flowing water. During the dry season it is possible to walk from one entrance to the other. The tunnel is up to 12m high and 15m wide and contains permanent pools of fresh water.

Included is a rock painting which may have been done by the aboriginal freedom fight Jandamarra and his followers who evaded police and other for nearly 3 years hiding out in Tunnel Creek until he was captured and killed on April 1 1897.

Here are some photos we took. It is hard to see inside the cave but the rocks are actually very beautiful. They are marbled and very smooth with the most incredible colours in them.

If they had been cut into crystals they would have sold for quite alot of money.

Here is Merv below inside the mouth of the cave. It was not so easy to photograph.

When we were there there were no bats inside otherwise you would not have entered the cave.

There were some very adventurous people who waded through the creek but it was pitch black and you would have needed a very strong torch to find your way. Our torch was not strong enough. So we opted to take photos instead and look for cave paintings. Here is one that we found. It looked a bit like a red ant painting to me. This painting was so high up the inner cliff rocks I don’t know how they could have painted it up there. The photo does not show it clearly but it was much

clearer in reality. There were other images painting in yellow ochre paint as well.Here is Merv standing against some of the walls of the cave at the entrance.

Here are some more photos. The first one was interesting as it was on the side of a cliff entering this place and as you can see this pinnacle stood alone. The next photo was the sandy bed at the front of the cave and then Merv standing in front of the inner walls at the front of the cave.

This large Boab was at the front of the cave. It is unusual for the boabs to grow so close to water. We usually found them growing right out of solid rock in quite dry conditions.

If you have read the previous blog you will have read that these trees can live up to 1,500 years in the poorest of conditions.

In the next blog I have included photos of the largest Boab I have ever seen. Also a Boab Tree used as a Prison outside of Derby,W.A

To Boab Quarry,W.A.

admin — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 00:43:42 +0000

We left our rest area at Mary Pool and headed to Boab Quarry where we were to camp for the night before visiting Tunnel Creek. To get there we had to travel along a dirt road for 10 kilometres but it was worth it to see all these ancient trees.

All of these boabs are so unique and interesting. It amazed us to see how they could grow on what appeared sheer rocks in such dry conditions and to survive so well.

Boab Quarry was an interesting rest area but I was not happy to take the Motorhome along the 11 km drive on Dirt Road. However the rugged scenery of the Boab trees was worth it.

Some individual boab trees are 1500 years old and older, which makes them the oldest living beings in Australia, and puts them amongst the oldest in the world.

Aboriginals used the giants as shelter, food and medicine. For the white settlers they served as easily recognisable land marks and meeting points, and not to forget as impromptu prison cells. Read more at http://www.outback-australia-travel-secrets.com/boab_tree.html I will follow this up with a Boab tree that we photographed later at Derby where it was used as a Prison for kidnapped Aborigines.

Below are some photos please Click these images to view them larger. These we took on our trip to Boab Quarry. You can see that the landscape is starting to come into flower as it is getting closer to Spring. Miss Bess loves to have her head rested on the pillow as we drive but Fidgy wanted also to be on it as well. Fidgy is avoided eye contact as she knows she should be at the other end of the lounge and thinks if she does not look at me then I cannot see her.

Here is one Boab going into Boab Quarry. Some Boabs were so large that you could walk into them where an inlet allows. Later on we visited a Boab Rest Area and the hole in the centre was so large that you could have lay down and slept there for shelter.

Boab Quarry

At Boab Quarry we met some other campers who told us that a bull had been here on its own 6 years ago when they visited. This is the same bull but much older and looking in poor condition.

It liked to graze peacefully in the quiet Quarry.

Below are some of the scenery in the Boab Quarry. As you can see there is a lovely swimming hole and many rock cliffs around with caves in them for exploring.

Now onto Tunnel Creek in the next article….

Realistic Portrait Sketches by Portrait Artist

admin — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 04:57:04 +0000

Fathers Day is soon approaching and many requests are coming in for Portrait Sketches as gift ideas for Father’s Day. Often these come in the form of Father and Son sketches. It really is important to allow plenty of time to complete these before September.

Many people are disappoionted when they do not allow for enough time to book in their Portrait Gift. Often they opt for Gift Vouchers to give on the day.

Whether you want to give a portrait sketch of commission a painting of say a car or hobby related it is important that plenty of time is given to complete the commission to a perfect state so please book you paintings now.

Realistic Portrait Sketches for Gift Ideas

Email Me – Cynthia Hargraves for a quote or a gift voucher for a Portrait or commissioned sketch or painting to suit your needs.

For examples click Portraits

For Price Formats click Prices