We are back in our favourite arid area place, Menindee!
Today we have set up our work areas in the Civic Hall and started to find the plants we want to collect and then plant.
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We have a date for our exhibition!
February 2018 at the Art Gallery of Ballarat Yes, it is a long way off, but we have lots to do to make it the exhibition we envisage. So pop it into your long term diary to make sure you come. What is it that attracts artists to this Project? How did they become involved and what delights them about the plant they are painting? Jan is our first artist from the 2015 trip to answer some of these questions, and more, including the tribulations in finding her plant. Why did you become involved in Beckler’s Botanical Bounty Project? When Mali [Moir] outlined the project, my first thoughts were what a great project it was, covering art, science and an amazing part of Australia's history. Dr Beckler, working for Ferdinand Mueller, the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, contributed a great collection from this area to our herbarium. Wouldn't it be great to see if now, 150 years later, we could find the same plants. What else is interesting for me is to see the impact on the flora of the area,from damming, sheep grazing, farming and general human impact. So far out of our 120 Dr Beckler identified/collected specimens we have found 78 survivors. What plant are you painting this year? What attracted you to this plant? Andrew, our botanist, found a Convolvulus clementii from Dr Beckler's list. As I had painted Convolvulus remotes he asked if I would like to paint this one too. In a highly excited state Ros and I combed the GPS point where he had located it, 30 mins out of town on a corrugated road in blazing heat, smothered in flies but unfortunately returning home empty handed. Mali and Anne accompanied me to again look the next day. To my surprise we found poor little Convolvulus clementii struggling to make its way in the harsh conditions. The specimens were small and not well established, ie not representative of the habit of more well established C.remotes which twines itself around on nearby plants. Next day while I was painting Mali urgently called out from the back yard of the hall. Here in the garden bed of the hall was my dear little clementii doing what he should - sending long tendrils out in search of something to twine around - a much healthier specimen. I had seen Convolvulus remotes on the footpath opposite the hall and thought I would look there too. Here was a tangle of clementii very healthy and completely rampant!! So much for combing the desert! I also will paint a daisy Asteracea Senicio lanibracteus. Classified as vulnerable in some areas, in Menindee it grows in abundance along the road sides. How will you go about painting it?
Firstly I took photos of the plant in its habitat to show its habit. I then took close up photos of various parts of the plant, ie. root, stems, leaves and flowers. I have done some microscopic work on the seeds which I then drew on tracing paper. I measured and drew the plant on more tracing paper. It is yet to be interpreted into a watercolour painting. The area around Menindee is not picture postcard pretty. Looking across the landscape you seem to only see saltbush. But look closer to find the treasures that are there. It is a surprising world.
Before we can even begin to paint our plants we need to collect them. That means accurate identification, which is not an easy task. Some plant species are differentiated by small hairs or leaf shape or small parts of the flower. We are so lucky to have Andrew, a botanist who is very experienced in the flora of the Kinchega National Park. He helps us work through the identification keys for our plants which often involves microscopic work. Of course the keys are written in botanical language, so he can often "translate" for us as well. We are permitted to collected plants, and collect our plants to Herbarium Standard Guideline. We are always very careful to only collect 10% of the plant population in that local area.
We are back in Menindee, for another week of investigation and collecting information for our next lot of paintings.
Yesterday we went into Kinchega National Park looking for the plants that are on Beckler's list. |
AuthorA behind the scenes look at our adventures in Menindee and how we go about creating our paintings. Archives
September 2018
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