Bill Treichel holds a paintbrush to the lid of a small bottle in front of him.
Not even the crows of the rooster in the garden can break his concentration.
“The light is generally pretty steady, so I like to paint until about 7-9 in the morning…then it’s cuckoo,” said the 95-year-old man.
Bill spends hours each morning in his converted art studio caravan on his rural property in Millaa Millaa, about 100 kilometers inland from Cairns.
Although he has been painting since the 1960s, the idea to paint a detailed Australian landscape on the top of the bottle came about 20 years ago.
“I was at home drinking Stubby one afternoon,” he said.
“And then, as I was flicking the lid of the bottle in the air, all of a sudden the idea popped into my head, and that was the beginning.”
Bill’s strong work ethic and desire to stay active means he paints at least a dozen bottle tops a day, and sometimes more.
Each design is unique and often inspired by my time on the land while prospecting for gold with my son Adam Treichel.
“Sometimes I paint landscapes and I think, ‘Oh, that’s good. Let’s do another one like that,'” Bill said.
“But there’s no way in the world that I’d approach it. I would say it’s very difficult to do two things the same.”
how does he do that?
Bill made a deal with the local Maranda Hotel. There bottle caps are collected and ready to be his next masterpiece.
Once he’s collected them, Bill prepares the top of the bottle by removing the plastic cover inside the lid and “washes it well.”
Before deciding on the landscape, he draws a white background on the base, then the sky.
“I can’t paint as fast as I did when I was younger,” he said.
“It used to be six minutes. Now it takes longer, but these days we also include more details.”
Once completed, Bill covers the top of the bottle with resin for protection and leaves it for a day to harden.
“Another bugger completed”
Bill used to sell bottle-top art on the market, but now he sells it purely for fun.
“I like to draw them. It’s about doing something and it drives me crazy,” he said.
“And every time I finish a row of bottle tops, I say to myself, ‘That’s another bagger done.'”
And over the years several lines have been done and there have been thousands in the collection.
Bill’s son Adam’s partner, Sarah Walker, said she hopes one day to be able to sell this unique art online.
“I’ve never seen anyone else do this kind of art, and Bill really enjoys making it,” Walker said.
“I don’t think he’ll give it up. In fact, he told me he’ll keep doing this until he’s 113.”