How fitting that Live Love’s Holiday Season 2020/21 post features local artist and Village shopkeeper, Georgia Pendlebury, who let us into her home where local artists feature prominently and memories are fortified in captivating vignettes bursting from every surface. Each turn offers an embellished gift within carefully curated spaces, where warmth and laughter echo in a lively blend of contemporary casual and classic chic.
Bought at a garage sale on Tower Road, this sideboard is one of may platforms supporting Georgia’s memories and fanciful decoration.
“I get most of my stuff kind of vintage, or garage sale. Or Frankston Trash & Treasure,” offers Georgia, as she sweeps through a house where the joy and confidence of a woman surrounded by love is manifest. “So it’s kind of an eclectic mix of old and new. And cheap!” she adds with a bubbly confection of amusement and grace. However, the frugality Georgia expresses is completely undermined by a collection of meaningful pieces both loved-again and newly hand-made which together create a beautiful mélange of rhapsodical happiness.
Georgia attributes her interest in style, and developing a unique artistic signature, to her mother. The home is very much a multi-dimensional counterpart to her paintings which are characterised by a frothy blend of still life motifs that burst from the canvas in a riot of pure joy.
Mel Peck plates draw attention Georgia’s favourite photo of her parents above a lyrical painting depicting summer on the French Riviera.
“I’ve always been passionate about my environment. I feel like it’s a reflection of me. I don’t want to put it in unless I love it.” It’s an ethos that runs especially deep at The Colour English, which she runs with business partner and a fellow creative tour de force, Rachel Osborne-Walker. They’re a great complement to each other, both dynamic and reliable, representing old and new Mount Eliza.
Woven pieces collected over time include special memories including a card, keys and photo of Georgia’s children.
A bench made by Georgia’s father supports a posy of sweet pea by local grower, Pamela, a mid-century Christmas decoration, a child’s art and a put by Kaz Morton.
Moving to Mount Eliza when she eight years-old, Georgia remembers the retail precinct the store occupies as the old servo whilst the Village Green featured a fountain. “I used to go there after school, and now my girls meet up there with their friends.” There’s a satisfaction in coming full circle with her children, and another generation growing up in a carefree and secure environment where a tangled ribbon of wild reserves and creek ways pushes up against beaches bending to a seasonal rhythm.
“My dad built two houses in Mount Eliza. The first was in Banool when it was a dirt road,” reminisces Georgia. “My parents now live on McCutcheon.” For Georgia, home is the Village. “Having a shop there, it’s a real community vibe.”
Local artists Kaz Morton and Emma Davies are highlighted here in front of a painting my Melbourne artist, Anna Blatman, who’s work is available at The Colour English.
The contribution Georgia and Rachel make to Mount Eliza is layered and long-lasting, with a commitment to supporting the careers of local artists and craftspeople. Nurturing relationships early on in the career of local artisans has helped to build reputations now making their way beyond the invisible line that separates the Mornington Peninsula from the rest of the world. Along with Georgia’s paintings and prints now on coasters, bags and puzzles, works by local photographers Morgan Henson, Tash Carah and Lisa Atkinson, ceramicists Kaz Morton and Gibson & Co. as well as pieces by Mel Pec and Emma Davies are available from the shop.
There’s always something to build on with a collection made of memories. Both in her home and in her work as an artist and shopkeeper, Georgia is creating not only memories but imprinting herself on a community with a high regard for local colour, even if it’s called English.
A balanced vignette of colour and texture inspires Georgia’s own work as a painter.
The Colour English
Shop 7,
87 Mount Eliza Way, Mount Eliza, Victoria
Five Live Loves of Georgia Pendlebury
The beaches “An obvious one. And the trees! Especially on the Woodlands side, and the nature!”
“That I have so many friends in Mount Eliza” Georgia is still friends with her high school peers, many of whom she met in Mount Eliza Primary School.
Saturday mornings “Everyone’s out and about – there’s a real vibe and energy.”
Keeping a shop “It’s been an amazing experience to be part of the community, to be part of the growth and change in the Village. Remember Café on the Mount?”
Giving back Donating to different local events and groups has entrenched The Colour English in the community.