...beyond the garden gate

It's finished!! It's finished!!
My "Be Creative Challenge" piece is finally complete! Some of you may remember a few posts awhile back about the "Be Creative Challenge," and the lovely picture of a gate that had to be used to inspire a project.

Well, this is my answer to the challenge....

When I first saw the photo of the gate, I kept wondering, "where does the gate lead to? Who lives beyond that gate? How many hands have opened that gate?" etc.

At the same time, I was researching some of my family history, and came across a record of my great great great grandparents, Thomas Gentle and Emily Ingrey. They were both born in 1827 and 1829 respectively, in England.

Emily was from a wealthy blue blood family, and Thomas was a stable hand/groom at a squires stable. They ended up falling in love, but Emilys parents would not allow them to marry because he wasn't good enough.

So they ended up eloping and having a small wedding, and then they immagrated to Australia to start a new life. They moved out to victorias north east, and had lots of children. Unfortunately alot of the children died (about 5 or 6 from memory, and mostly from childbirth, or complications and illness as kids.)

And I couldn't help but feel so touched by this story. That if they had not eloped and followed their hearts, I would not be here today! So, I decided to make my piece to represent this wonderful story of my great, great, great grandparents.

So I made a picture of what I imagined their home would have been like. And of course, the lovely gate at the front, to welcome people to their home. The random colour that I got drawn that had to be used in my piece was gold, and so I put some little gold beads on the bush in the left hand corner.

I must say, I'm so pleased with how it turned out, and it looks fabulous hanging on the wall at home.