I had the opportunity recently to photograph these two gorgeous Daschunds for a commission. Unusually, the one who is really good with visitors was quite shy of me and the one that is usually shy was all over me. Maybe one reacted to the camera more than the other. However, with the owners help, I managed to get lots of shots to work from and put together this piece. Bonnie, the one on the right, is actually hiding behind the owner’s leg in the photograph but I put her behind Millie to create a more harmonious image with the two dogs interacting. I’ve used the fibreglass brush on 11″ x 14″ black scratchboard

I just had the privilege of doing a portrait of a champion Border Collie called Derby. He’s an absolutely gorgeous dog owned by a friend and it’s been a pleasure to work on this piece. It’s a scratchboard, coloured with inks, watercolours and acrylic paints and is 8″ x 10″

When you are an artist who sells his work, often your profit is eliminated by the costs of framing. Now, I don’t want to do framers out of a job because they have their own massive costs, and some of them are brilliant at what they do, and in most cases are the best people to advise on frame style, border size and mount colours etc. However, every now and then I simply can’t afford to frame something so it’s time to think outside the box. Firstly, if I’m selling a scratchboard I can ask the customer to frame it themselves. The boards are varnished and sturdy so they can be posted without much fear that they’ll be damaged. The customer knows their location best and can make decisions accordingly, and they can spend as much or as little as they like on framing, but if I want to display a piece prior to sale, I need it to be framed.

Generally I’ve been having frames made for me and I glue my board to the mount in a floating style which looks very nifty and doesn’t require glass which is a huge plus because of cost and visibility. Here’s an example of that.

Total cost for a frame like this could be about $20-50 depending on size and they seem very popular in shows and with my customers.

Now with my latest piece which is quite frivolous, I decided to make a frivolous frame. For four dollars I got a small cheap canvas and painted it with spray paint straight from the can, a bit of masking tape for the ‘Piet Mondrian’ lines and the ‘d’ rings and wire, total cost around six dollars. So I’m not recommending you to go cheap, but every now and then it’s worth thinking outside the box.

This is the frivolous piece with the finished ‘frame’ underneath, it’s an emu I came across travelling near Melbourne

I’m pleased to announce that my Zambian waitress that I met in the restaurant “Ngoma Zanga” in Livingstone in Zambia won its section at the Royal Adelaide Show. It’s a scratchboard 16″ x 20″. Sorry about the glare in the photo but the original is underneath it. I checked the competition out and there’s some really good work there so I feel like it’s a good win and I’m very happy.