winter landscape
winter gathering
“I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure of landscape - the loneliness of it - the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it, the whole story doesn’t show.”
trees by the lake
I have been spending time by the lake in the Australian Plant Section of the botanical gardens walking and writing and staring at the reflections on the water .
a return to the lake.......
“All pictures painted inside the studio will never be as good as the things done outside”
Cooler weather ...it"s time to head into the garden and paint.
magnolia
“Every leaf speaks bliss to me, fluttering from the autumn tree. ”
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!
un doing
This week I went to the Botanical gardens and sat on the park bench. No need to take a photograph. No need to pick a specimen. No need to do anything.
Look at the lake. Smell the swampy water. Listen to the birds. Feel the gentle morning breeze on my skin.
Just perfect!
“Blow the candle out - I don’t need to see what my thoughts look like”
the picture of the lake taken on the 17 March
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”
”
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’”
learning through seeing
Monday mornings I go early to the botanical gardens to collect specimens to paint during the week. I carefully select, cut and take them back to my studio. They are placed in a row of glass bottles on my work table. Each day I select a single flower to focus on. I try to simply paint what I see .
“when you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else.”
pastel drawings of this week's specimens hanging in the studio.