Cecily Slade

Cecily’s artistic potential was recognised at an early age through the winning of an art prize with her very first painting. Her parents encouraged her by sending her to an art tutor and later she was honoured to receive some training at East Sydney Technical College from the Arts Council in Casino, her childhood home. She studied Level 1 Art and won an Art Scholarship.

Her artistic career began in clothing design. Having parents in the clothing business, Cecily opened a small clothing design factory at 18 and was successful in selling her designs to outlets between Brisbane and Sydney and some in substantial quantities to large wholesalers. Contingent with this she completed a BA in Behavioural Science. Subsequently her entrepreneurial skills led her to work in senior marketing positions for Kellogg’s and Masterfoods in Sydney.

In the 1980’s she moved from Sydney to the Sunshine Coast and opened her own clothing design shops under her label Cecily’s.

In 2004 Cecily returned to art, experimenting with styles and organic forms and particularly leaning towards florals. Since that time, she has honed her artistic expertise in this field working diligently at her practice and developing her own unique methods for creating her floral works.

Flowers offer a vehicle which enable her to express deeper realisations of the human spirit. The intricate beauty and subtle nuances of colour and light and the harmony of line and form they embody are integral to her work.

Cecily works from living flowers and sunlight and aims to breathe life into the work. Also present is a passion for good design as the basic structure on which the work is built. It is meaningful that these organic natural forms have been shown to quieten, uplift and enhance the human condition.

Cecily holds several exhibitions every year and has received acclaim and recognition for her floral works.

Featured

Cecily Slade

Little World of Mists and Mellow Fruitfulness

Cecily Slade

$2,300.00

Oil on Canvas

1220 x 620 mm

This little guy is a native Teddy Bear Bee. He was discovered in the gardens of the Grafton Historical Society on a purple ribbon flower bush. I have tried to recreate all his furry gorgeousness here in his own little misty world.

Cecily Slade

Like Gossamer Wings

Cecily Slade

$1,800.00

Oil on canvas
1220 x 610 mm

I loved this flower because its petals reminded me of insect wings. I wanted to express the fragile textures and the intrinsic embedded forms within the petals. The transparent colours vibrate and light to glows through the work. I wanted the viewer to engage with the magical synergy between petals and tiny wings.

Cecily Slade

Unfurl

Cecily Slade

$1,900.00

Oil on Canvas

1220 x 610 mm

The light and colour at the centre of this poppy is truly beautiful. And the way the petals open they seem to be flying in the wind which gives the painting its name. Very close focus, this is a work about the surprising fine detail we often miss in nature.

Cecily Slade

Awakening

Cecily Slade

$1,800.00

Oil on Canvas

760 x 760mm

First light, and a shock of awareness splits the void shattering form into myriad planes of glowing light.’

The intricate beauty and subtle nuances of colour and light and the harmony of line and form flowers embody are integral to my work. I aim to open perceptions and enliven a sense of wonder.

Cecily Slade

Carnival

Cecily Slade

$2,300.00

Oil on Canvas

1020x760mm

There’s so much vibrant excitement of movement, colour and light in this painting it has to be a carnival. The pure white petals of this poppy are brought to life with the intensity of the background colours and the dancing red poppies created with bokeh effects.

Cecily Slade

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Cecily Slade

Poetry of Winter

Cecily Slade

$2,900.00

Oil on Canvas

910x1220mm

One of the lovely things about winter is that its rose season. I found these beautiful white roses in Queen’s Park and I have tried in this work to create the crisp cool feeling of winter in Toowoomba.

Cecily Slade

Replenish

Cecily Slade

$1,800.00

Oil on Canvas

1020x760mm

I loved the soft misty light of this showery morning in Warwick. These white roses took on beautiful pastel hues of the palest pinks, lemons and soft mauve greys and raindrops made little crystals on the pristine petals. Mornings like this fill us with stillness and renewal, they allow us to breathe again. They replenish our soul.

Cecily Slade

Tulip Time

Cecily Slade

$950.00

Oil on Canvas

610x610mm

I found these lovely purple tulips at Floriade in Canberra. The pansies peeping around them reminded me of fairies in the woods

Cecily Slade

Dancing with Light

Cecily Slade

$1,800.00

Oil on Canvas

1220x910mm

Flowers do indeed dance with the light. I loved the transparency of how the light reflected through the petals of this camelia. The morning light sparkles through the canopy, it is an evanescent and magical world created with bokeh effects.

Cecily Slade

Harmony

Cecily Slade

$2,900.00

Oil on Canvas

910x760mm

These luscious deep red peonies are happy in each other’s company. They flow and blend into each other perfectly making a spectacular presence on the wall. I also love the purple light that shines through them and the soft textural background that makes the flowers so luminous.

Cecily Slade

Luminescent

Cecily Slade

$2,300.00

Oil on Canvas

1220x760mm

In Luminescent I wanted these roses to shine out of the darkness and the senses to be assailed and the mind engaged in the strength of light emerging from the depth of quiet botanical space. White is never white and I like to see how much colour I can find within it.

Cecily Slade

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Cecily Slade

Joy in the Small Things

Cecily Slade

$2,900.00

Oil on Canvas

1520x910mm

I’ve tried to bring a small subtle and vibrant world to life. One which is all around us and we don’t often appreciate. Sunlight dancing through foliage created with bokeh effects, colour filled light and shade, created with transparent layering and intense attention to detail are characteristic of my work.

Cecily Slade

Panache

Cecily Slade

$2,300.00

Oil on Canvas

1020x760mm

This joyful painting is filled with life and energy. A stunning vibrant pink peony surrounded with vibrating light created with bokeh effects.

Cecily Slade

Reverie

Cecily Slade

$2,300.00

Oil on Canvas

1220x760mm

The first blossoms of Spring bring forth a dream of renewal, they awaken us all to a new joy in nature, a dance of fertility motivated by the intrinsic beauty of life, a celebration of abundance where we become pleasantly lost in our own musings and excitement of things to come.

Cecily Slade

Shimmer

Cecily Slade

$895.00

Oil on Canvas

610 x 610

I particularly selected these flowers for their form to create the overall design of the work. Their depth and variety of colour is beautiful and my favourite part the centre of the main flower ads amazing depth to the composition. The painting has a shimmering quality to it when viewed under lights hence its name.

Cecily Slade

Penelope

Cecily Slade

$2,300.00

Oil on canvas

1020 x 760 mm

Pink peonies are a symbol of good luck and prosperity. My wish is for these luscious pink peonies to bless your home with good luck and prosperity everyday.

Cecily Slade

Enfolded Light

Cecily Slade

$1,800.00

Oil on canvas

910 x 760 mm

Oh, seeker of beauty and truth. Dance with freedom through the world’s darkness

Our precious gift

Lead us home

Cecily Slade

Blush

Cecily Slade

$2,750.00

Oil on canvas

1015 x 1015 mm

On a lovely autumn day in Toowoomba’s Queens Park this bee was happily buzzing through the dahlia bushes with his mates.

I wanted to recreate the sensuousness of this bloom and the gorgeous patterning of magenta colouring through this otherwise white dahlia gives it its name, Blush.

Cecily Slade

Ruby's Song

Cecily Slade

$2,750.00

Oil on canvas

1020 x 1020 mm

Have you ever noticed that Camelias have the most beautiful shiny leaves that glow silver in the sunlight?

Ruby’s Song is a story about those gorgeous leaves. They draw the eye through the painting and anchor it with two frilly red camelias.

Cecily Slade

Portals of Light

Cecily Slade

$2,400.00

Oil on canvas

1000 x 1000 mm

I love finding interesting organic spaces that are unexpectedly beautiful and bound to be missed at a casual glance. These little spaces channel the light through the foliage, creating light patterns and colour transformations. They make spaces for colourful blossoms to peek through and invest translucent leaves with golden glowing light.

I love the richness of the purples through this painting too. These sweet peas were part of The Carnival of Flowers, Toowoomba’s celebration of all things floral and beautiful.

Cecily Slade

Flow

Cecily Slade

$2,750.00

Oil on canvas

1015 x 1015 mm

One of the things I love about tulips is how shiny they are.

This painting is called Flow for the beautiful flow of lines through the work and because the flow of life has this bloom just about ready to drop its luscious petals.

Cecily Slade

Blossom Heaven

Cecily Slade

$2,900.00

Oil on canvas

1220 x 910 mm

Spring is the happiest of seasons and this painting recreates the feeling of looking up into a flowering peach tree with a little bee sizing up his next blossom to visit.

I hope it helps recreate the happiness of spring in your heart too.

Cecily Slade

Flair

Cecily Slade

$1,800.00

Oil on canvas

760 x 760 mm

I love hot pink. To me this beautiful pink peony said excitement with style and panache. That is why I have called it Flair.

My flowers are outdoors in natural light and this increases the range and intensity of colour and I have developed my own techniques to make the light bounce off the canvas. This beautiful peony just glows with intense sunlight.

Cecily Slade

Primavera

Cecily Slade

$1,800.00

Oil on canvas

1015 x 760 mm

When you are a frequent visitor to Toowoomba’s Carnival of Flowers one of the things you will appreciate is the often, spectacular colour palate that makes the array of flowers so beautiful. Spring is such an exciting season we can’t help ourselves getting out into the garden, enjoying life bursting forth in abundance.

Primavera is a celebration of the abundance and promise of Spring.

Cecily Slade

Luminous

Cecily Slade

$1,800.00

Oil on canvas

910 x 760 mm

It’s a lovely thing when people send you photos of flowers because they love your work. People send me photos from all around the world. The reference photo for this painting came from our Canadian Aunt who took it in a garden in Norway, of course it didn’t look quite like this.

I wanted to make this painting so filled with light and transparent that it’s almost a whisper. It’s like a breath of clean fresh air. It glows with light.

Cecily Slade