Castle Phoenix

Francis Shepherd

Francis  Shepherd is a very creative being.  In his early teens he began pottery. He mastered wheel thrown pots but found this form of pottery was not creative enough.  He began hand building sculptural forms. His 'worm' pots are incredibly detailed. The 'worm' is a very fine string of clay formed by hand rolling.  He has never publicly displayed any of his wonderful pottery.  When we have our Castle Phoenix, we plan to make a display area especially for this work that the public can come to see.

In his mid twenties, Francis began mosaicing. He has produced hundreds of pieces.  He then made sculptured seats which he covered with mosaics. If you visit Mackay, Queensland, Australia you can see some of Francis's work. At Souths Football Club you will find shark fins covered in mosaic plus other mosaic examples.  In Walkerston, at the Tommy Webster Hall you will see a beautiful mosaiced seat. He held community workshops to produce many of the images on this seat which he then brought into a cohesive whole with waves of colour.  In Sarina, a half hour south of Mackay is a butterfly seat.  This is a three armed seat topped with a large sphere.  Colourful butterflies glow on the white background.         

 A sculptured seat by Francis Shepherd

                                               Butterfly seat in Sarina Qld

Christina Kent

Christina Kent is a painter in all media. Portraiture and murals have been major themes and commissions in her career. Although, she has taken on many commissions in a variety of subjects.

    Some examples of the variety she has tackled in her career- she has produced an art instruction video on Pastels for beginners: painted pastel advertising Chalkboards: designed DVD Cover designs: painted 30 murals for an Irish themed pub and taken on dozens of portrait commissions - many life sized and worked from life.

Never afraid of an artistic challenge she has added pebble and broken tile mosaicing to her repertoire in recent years.

     In Mackay she gave three art classes per week, started an art group which had two exhibitions a year and ran her own art gallery.

Since being in Tasmania, she has concentrated on producing mosaics for the walls and pathways at Castle Phoenix.

A painting by Christina Kent

                    An example of an acrylic tonal painting "Logging"

The strip slideshow below shows both Francis and Christina's work in alternating images.