Our Story

Thank you for taking a moment to learn more about Brushweaver. Decorative Painting encompasses many and varied forms of art work.  From the peasant art of Central Europe to the stylised rococo and baroque of Italy and France, varying styles and traditions are evident in most areas around the world. A decorative artist uses his or her imagination, often drawing on many different methods to arrive at a unique design. We enjoy creating traditional designs as well as whimsical imaginings using techniques learned over the past thirty years.

About Brushweaver

So, with this in mind, Brushweaver was born.  We have woven a story into each piece with our brushes and our creations, hopefully, will make the viewer smile.  We have taken old pieces and recreated them with tomorrow in mind in the hope that future generations will enjoy our pieces and put them in pride of place.  

Lea and Carolyn met at a painting Society meeting 25 years ago and have remained best of friends and business partners ever since.

After they travelled  overseas to attend painting conventions and study with other decorative artists, they decided to run seminars and conventions in Australia, to give Australian painters the opportunity to learn from internationally renowned artists.

They developed a close working relationship with DecoArt, in Stanford Kentucky, manufacturer of the highest quality acrylic paints on the market. This relationship continues to this day.

The Brushweaver mission is to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.

We feel that we have achieved this by taking used and often discarded pieces of furniture, seeing their beauty and potential, and making it into something amazing.  So any dings, dents and cracks are embraced and form part of the story of each piece.

This makes our furniture truly unique as each design will never be replicated.

Lea Davis

Lea has been painting for thirty years after seeing Hinderloopen classes advertised at a local store.  Hinderloopen is a stroke style of painting, disciplined and precise but learnable after hours and hours of practice.  

As time passed Lea started teaching a class, then multiple classes, and was then approached to write her first book on the art of decorative painting. She has now published a total of seven books.

Lea has studied with many teachers, renowned in their methods with differing styles of decorative painting, and continues to take classes to this day, believing you always learn something from each class. Lea has travelled nationally and internationally teaching her craft and has made many friends the world over.  

While semi retired from teaching, Lea now concentrates on her first love of painting furniture.

“I have always loved the old, worn, time-affected pieces found in secondhand shops. I remember spending hard earned dollars on a wonderful dresser when I first started college. I just loved looking at it. I liked knowing it was there in the corner of my room and I used to wonder at the history behind it.  Whose room had it graced before mine?”

Carolyn Ballantine

Carolyn has been painting for 30 years and her first lessons in painting were also Hinderloopen,  across the city from Lea.

While she loved the discipline of stroke work she soon wanted to learn to paint in a more decorative style with a flat brush.

A whole new world opened up to her with a move away form the traditional round brush.

Roses and floated colour became her new passion.

While Lea reached for the round brush, Carolyn reached for the flat brush, but their styles worked in harmony as they designed projects together.

Also having taught locally and nationally Carolyn still travels internationally to the USA to teach classes.

“ After painting and teaching for many years on smaller surfaces, the desire to paint larger projects was always there. Our venture into furniture is exactly that. We can paint whimsical, traditional and whatever takes our fancy!”