thorns and petals

The Arid Zone......Thorns....During the month of April I enjoyed the arid zone with it's beautiful Aloes and Euphorbias and the succulents in the Cacti and Succulent house. I also enjoyed meeting Prue who looks after the succulents,the fern house and the tropical Dome.

The Temperate Zone......Petals....... on the other side of the lake the Camellias and Magnolias are flowering. What a beautiful sight!

oh Stapelia!

This week I continue to paint specimens from the succulent and aloe garden.

During my early morning visit to the gardens on Wednesday I met Prue who is back from her holiday. She looks  after the succulent area.. She very kindly picked me  a Stapelia from the garden to include in my box of specimens to paint for the week... She also informed me I would have to clean the fly larvae out of the center as I may have a maggot problem in the studio if I don't! The Stapelia is a carrion flower and its odour of rotting meat attracts insects to it.

Back in the studio I immediately set to work picking the fly larvae out of the flower centre with a toothpick and giving it a good rinse. The flower feels like latex. looks like a starfish. and it proved a very difficult specimen to paint.

I failed. My miserable effort ended up being torn up and placed in the bin. But I was treated to a wonderful display of the Stapelia flower on my work desk being lit up by an afternoon ray of sunshine.

That was worth the struggle!

into the arid zone

The work table in the studio is full of wonderful thorny specimens from the botanical gardens.

Handle with care!

“the desert is oozing power”
don Juan whispered in my ear
”there is no time to be timid”
”

— Carlos Castenanda

thorny poetry

For the month of April I will be in the arid zone.......

I am meeting Steve,the supervisor of this area of the botanical gardens,  on Friday. I will be focusing on Southern African succulents and have some ideas for 'arid zone inspired' sculptures. I'm excited!

“‘So they drove again, Vivien sitting up and looking now, but as navigator only, letting the desert scratch it’s own thorny poetry on the enormous moon’”

— Douglas Woolf