Put your children,pet or family in the frame

Put your children or family in the picture in the form of oil painting portraits or pastel painting portraits as a memorable gift to Grandparents or loved ones on birthdays or at christmas.

If you have not ordered or commissioned this portrait yet then ask for a gift voucher to give on the day.

At no extra expense I will take several photos at my photo studio to later paint to your design and setting. You might love the below family pictures as great ideas for your oil portrait painting or pastel portrait painting. Portraits are also available in watercolor portraits or acrylics.

Here are some photos to paintings ideas …….

Oil Portrait Paintings or Pastel Portrait Paintings

Pet Portrait - Dog Paintings of Oil Portrait Paintings or Pastel Portrait Paintings

Oil Portrait Painting or Pastel Portrait Painting from Family picture shoot

To see more visit http://www.cynthiahargraves.com or http://www.childrensportraits.org

Call me at 0488 288512 for a free family portrait painting quote.

Great Gift Ideas - Personalised Gift Vouchers

Gift vouchers for  Family, Children,Wedding, Birthday,Christmas or Pet portraits make wonderful gifts because they are highly personalised, original, unusual and unique.  Commissioned portraits or paintings that hold meaning to the individual will always be greatly appreciated and fondly remembered for the gift that came from the heart. It really shows that alot of thought went into it and someone really cares.

“It was not a present that was about ‘ grabbing anything’ because a gift was expected on a due date.”

Even if it is a house warming party or an engagement or graduation. A commissioned painting gift voucher for a commissioned painting be it a painting for their home or group of friends or personalised painting of the engaged couple still conveys the meaning of how special that person is and how deeply loved they are.

In the cases where someone has lost a loved one then custom portraits or paintings can really help heal and ease the grief experienced in their loss.

Wedding Gift Ideas

If  you want to give a great wedding gift that is unique, unusual and highly personalised then commissioning an original oil or pastel portrait painting is perfect for wedding gifts or wedding anniversaries(25th,50th)

Contact me: Cynthia Hargraves Ph 0488 288512 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              0488 288512      end_of_the_skype_highlighting or Email me and discuss what your needs are.

Oil Portrait Painting - Great Wedding,Anniversary Gift Idea

Lake Eyre - with Water!

We lifted off and flew over Lake Eyre which had a large amount of water in it from the recent rains but at the height we were travelling we could see no birdlife.

After Lake Eyre we ran into low cloud so diverted to Maree. The airport was disserted when we arrived but eventually commercial pilots arrived and we got a lift into town. No accomodation was available for us so we checked the weather and chose to fly 275miles to White Cliffs.

White cliffs township

After flying under low cloud we eventually gained a clearing and a tail wind and arrived at White Cliffs at 4.30pm. We rang around and located a B&B called PJ’s. They gave us accomodation for the night in an underground ex mining dugout. It was tastefully designed and included breakfast and a tour of the mine operations.

Doorway from Underground B&B to mine

The next day we discovered the town. Gisela and Joan made the most of visiting the opal shops and bought some jewelery.

Camel transport from bygone days

White Cliffs Old Church

In the afternoon we checked into the previously booked underground motel. It was not as nice as the previous accomodation and we had to walk a lot further to get to the bathrooms. Some had dinner on the premises while others made other eating arrangements.

Sunset from Roof of Dug-Out Motel

Our Last Breakfast together

We refueled the next morning and flew home via Walgett where we stopped for more fuel. Rod and Gisela went to the Southport Flying Club while we landed at Heckfield with Doug and Joan who followed us in soon after. It was wonderful getting home but unfortunately Doug was quite ill and Joan had to drive him home.

Great Australian Bight

We flew to Caiguna but were unable to get above 3 thousand feet and had to constantly dodge showers and low cloud. We left Caiguna after refueling at $2.67 a litre and headed for Nullabor Roadhouse. We flew over some of the shoreline cliffs of the Great Australian Bight. They were awe inspiring but the weather was not helpful in portraying them in their magnificent state. These cliffs range from 100-300ft high.

We were happy to fly into the Nullabor Roadhouse and stay the night before heading off to William Creek.

Conditions the next day were strong south westerlies and some low cloud. Rod and Doug flew mostly at 3 and a half thousand feet,experiencing 25kts of tailwind while we went higher and flew at 5 and a half thousand feet and experienced similar tailwind rating but it was much smoother.  We covered 325 miles in 2 hours 20 mins.

When we landed we were really surprised by William Creek. It really is the genuine outback. Situated 100miles from Cooper Pedy it has no internet access but does have a communal satelite phone. We had booked 3 rooms for 2 days. There was beds in the room,some had wardrobes and a fridge but there was no tea and coffee making facilities. Gisela had to ask for an electric jug which we shared between the 3 rooms. A loud generator outside our rooms provided us with power. The lights in the rooms were temperamental or just refused to turn on but it was clean and tidy. The room we were in had a 2 way bathroom which we shared with Joan and Doug.

The Outdoor Showers

We had dinner that night in a very ‘rustic’ type restaurant attached to the pub. The pub’s walls and ceiling was lined with business cards,student cards,drivers licenses,caps and hats. Anything that would allow the visitors to lay their mark seemed acceptable. There was also thick dust in corners allowing the genuine cobwebs to show up. A jutebox was also available along with the bar that served all drinks.

Here are some of the photos to describe this best…

William Creek Jutebox - check out the walls

Dining Out at William Creek

Country sculptures

Poor Flying Conditions to Esperance

Low Cloud and rain with a front moving through into our travel route were the conditions facing us on the morning we left Bremer Bay for Esperance.

We had to dodge quite a few rain showers and couldn’t get above two thousand feet because of the low clouds.

Esperance Township

We had to alter course by quite a bit before finally arriving at our destination. All the while the pilots stayed chatting to each other about the conditions and their whereabouts. While all this was going on I kept taking the most wonderful photos of moody clouds as they loomed over the sea and land. I thought it looked so interesting and would make wonderful material for future paintings in an upcoming art exhibition.

Once landed we were escorted by some people from the airfield to our lovely accomodation at the Jetty Resort where we stayed for a couple of days. We had a hired van to get around and here are some of the photos we took along the way.

Beautiful Esperance seascapes

Gisela,Rod,Merv,Joan and Doug

I took this photo so was not included in the photo shoot. Allen and John were not with us here as they were still in Perth. Hopefully they will join up with us soon for our trip back home.

Fog as thick as Pea Soup

We were all set to leave for Bremer Bay this morning when we found that there was dense fog that would be delaying our departure. The temperature was about 0 degrees celcius at the airfield and we waited around to 10:30am until we were able to get away.

Allen and John by the RV7 plane waiting for the fog to lift

Allen and John had decided to leave us and fly to Serpentine and join up with us in a couple of days when we arrived in Esperance.

There was quite a bit of clouds on the way to Bremer Bay and we had to keep varying our height to miss the turbulence.

Finally we arrived at Bremer Bay but preferred to fly over the township first as it looked so picturesque.

Bremer Bay

Bremer Bay Coastline

Our accomodation in Bremer Bay was quite nice and we lost no time exploring the township after viewing some of the lovely scenes from the sky. Here are some scenes of Bremer Bay.

Merv,Joan and Doug viewing the scene at Bremer Bay

Gisela and Rod

Bremer Bay Beachside

Rod walking along a rocky beachside area of Bremer Bay

Some of the fertile landscape on the way to Northam

After Geraldton we flew to Northam and loved some of the scenery along the way. So many colourful fields growing below us. We later understood that some of these were the wheat belt. Once in Northam we found lovely Murals and Sculptures along the streets and in the parks..This township was surprisingly larger than we thought it would be.

Island and distant fountains in the River by the Township

Here are some of the Murals…..

Mural of The Old School Days

Rural Scene

Mural Shop Front

Northam Racing

Northam - more racing

The Statues and monuments in the parks and streets….

Some of the Statues of Northam

Finally we went out to dinner in a Country Pub. Here we all are.

Group Dinner - Doug,Merv,Rod,Allen,John,Gisela,Me and Joan

John White enjoying himself

Allen enjoying his dessert

Storm Clouds leaving Port Hedland

As we left Port Hedland we knew our flying conditions were not going to be ideal for our 3.5 hour trip to Coral Bay. Strong headwinds, low cloud, rain and plenty of turbulence were ahead of us, however spirits were fine and Rod Waldon even broke into a few bars of “The Black Hills of Dakota” when conditions cleared and we discovered these hills below.

This reminded Rod of "The Black Hills of Dakota"

This did not last long for Rod began to become very quiet and when Allen asked him why he said his instruments were failing  him and soon his radio completely stopped working. Merv had mentioned to Rod just before his radio failure that there was a landing strip ahead in a small town. Allen and John flew back to try and get Rod to follow us behind the Bearhawk to show him the way to the landing strip.

We landed first.

Emergency Landing in a nearby town

Here is Rod and Gisela’s plane on the strip with Allen and John just landing behind.

Upon inspection it was discovered that Rod’s alternator was not charging the battery. Gisela swapped planes to fly with Allen while John White flew with Rod until we made Coral Bay.

We all felt relieved to make Coral Bay which is quite beautiful and we loved our accomodation. Here are some photos….

Coral Reef from above Coral Bay

Some of the bay

Coral Bay beachside

However we did not fully explore Coral Bay as the men tried to fix the problems of Rod’s plane. They did their best but it was clear it needed a new alternator so one was ordered and sent to Geraldton. The next day we flew into Geraldton and the new alternator was waiting. It took the men half an hour to fit it into Rod’s plane ready for the trip for Northam the next day.

Rod Waldon fishing at Port Hedland

We planned to visit Port Hedland in order to service the planes. The scenery leading to Port Hedland was quite attractive……

Some of the salt beds this one is beginning to dry out

Water evaporating further

Salt beds where water has completely evaporated

but once arriving there we noticed how different this place was. It is purely a functional mining town with not a lot in visual attraction as our other places had been. Cape Leveque and Port Hedland seemed to be exact opposites.

There were statues made of metal this is one made by the aboriginal community called the “Harmony Tree”.

Harmony Tree

Harmony Tree on closer inspection of people

The Harmony tree was created with the hope to bring harmony between indigenous people and white people.

I did not take a lot of photos of Port Hedland itself as I know I did not find it attractive but there were many National Parks more inland which would be good to visit at a later time. One thing though we did meet some lovely people that made us feel very welcome and will always remember Port Hedland for this.