A TOUR of Phil Clements’ Mount Gambier home will reveal themed bedrooms featuring dramatic glow-in-the-dark murals and a backyard every kid in the neighbourhood must envy.
While the Avatar-inspired master bedroom – a floor-to-ceiling fantasy forest – is arguably the most impressive, every room is a work of art and a journey into Mr Clements’ imagination.
Delightfully “weird and wonderful”, the Clements’ family home reflects the local artist’s eclectic personality and is a showcase of his talent.
Born and raised on Sydney’s northern beaches, Mr Clements said spending almost every weekend in Manly Vale with his grandparents was his most important formative influence.
“My grandfather Stan Clements was a very talented artist,” Mr Clements said.
“He would take students to Manly Dam for painting lessons and I would join him – I picked up a paintbrush at a very young age.
“I was four years old and helping his students mix colours.”
The former chef met his wife Liz at Kings Canyon in the Northern Territory.
“We were both travelling solo and crossed paths at Kings Canyon,” Mr Clements said.
“I was working as a chef at the time, but we were both creatives at heart – Liz has just completed her art therapy diploma and we are starting a business course to market Clements artworks.
“We both won full scholarships through the NVI incubation hub which is exciting.”
The couple moved to Mount Gambier with their three children five years ago and the family home soon became Mr Clements’ canvas.
“I paint bits and pieces all the time – when I get bored I try a new technique,” he said.
“I’ve been working on the Avatar room for five years – there are all these weird and wonderful details I keep adding.
“Everything in the entire house glows in the dark – there is glow paint through everything and it charges up during the day.”
While Mr Clements is working on a number of commissioned projects across town, including murals on blank walls at Arena Sports Store and Tonkins In-Car Solutions, he said one canvas was especially unique.
“A terminally ill man has commissioned me to paint his coffin,” he said.
“He wanted images from his property and I’ve replicated the style of the Constable paintings he has on his walls – they are his favourites.
“He wanted his family to be accustomed to his passing and the original idea was to have it at his house and have the grandchildren come around and get used to the idea of the coffin.
“I think now the plan is just to have it displayed at South East Funerals.
“I met the family and looked at a few photographs to put it together – it’s still a work in progress and I’ve been given a little creative license to paint a ‘stairway to heaven’ too.”
