I’ve been recolouring old photographs for a while now but recently I decided to try my hand at colouring statues. The original images of the statues were shot at Ballarat Botanical Gardens in Victoria a couple of years ago. All but one are a part of the same series of statues by Charles Summer, purchased with bequest funds from James Russell Thompson in 1888. The odd one out is Hebe, which is part of the Stoddard Collection.

Whilst the statues have retained their original names in the series, I’ve deliberately chosen not to place them in the context of the historical characters the statues represented, but to see them simply as beautiful women and to imagine who they might have originally been based on.

Each image required many hours of Photoshop work and includes intricate details such as lace finishes and hand-drawn patterns to make them as realistic as possible.

I originally designed the pieces as still images, but I enjoy the irony of turning them into cinemagraphs. The effects are subtle but I think that suits the images.