Outback New South Wales has had no decent rain for two years, and the country is suffering. There are few species out, and we were unable to find any of the 39 plants still left on our list. So, no paintings of new plants. We have been asked by the Herbarium to recollect species. They are interested in having a comprehensive collection of plants from the same location, collected at the same time, but in different conditions. We found some to recollect. The Darling Pea is out along the Darling River banks flowering and growing to about 1m, although not as high as our first year in 2010. The black blue bushes are all grey …. except for the odd one being an intense almost viridian green blue, plenty of young fruits are their usual bright lime green. The Bracyscome multifida and the little pink Convolvulos are happily flowering, the Centipeda is en-masse at the receding lake. The Centipeda did need some rehydration in the sink before it could be pressed for the Herbarium!
While there was not the usual hum of collecting and painting in Menindee's Civic Hall during the week, we did keep busy, recollecting what we could find, working on unfinished paintings and creating a field guide for the plants left to be found. The plants in this environment have evolved in this harsh environment, and have developed strategies that help them survive in the long term. When the rains finally come many of our little treasures will emerge.
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Sadly, our Exhibition is coming to an end. We have had such fantastic responses from people who have visited. But, if you haven't made it to Ballarat yet, you still have this week and the weekend to see it.
To find out more, read the interview with Valerie in the Weekly Times
https://www.weeklytimesnow.com.au/country-living/botanical-exhibition-celebrates-burke-and-wills-at-art-gallery-of-ballarat/news-story/577ca41e8af861e458581541209e9c7d#_=_ Sunday 4 March 2018
2.00-4.00pm Australian Garden Auditorium, Cranbourne Gardens Directions the Cranbourne Gardens Members $15 Non-members $20 Students $5 Bookings are essential . Ring 5990 2200 for more details Presenters will include: Dr Linden Gillbank, Honorary Researcher, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, University of Melbourne, who contributed the essay on von Mueller and Hermann Beckler in Burke & Wills, The Scientific Legacy of the Victorian Expedition; Dr Roslyn Glow OAM and Jan Rosenberg, participating artists will illustrate some of the excitement of plant discovery and portrayal; Mali Moir, leader and coordinator of the project will outline some of the botanical and artistic challenges and what may be seen at the Ballarat Gallery. The fate of Burke and Wills on the Victorian Exploring Expedition in 1860 is familiar to most Australians. What is less acknowledged is the considerable scientific legacy left by the scientists who joined the Expedition – surveyor, astronomer, meteorologist, geologist, mineralogist, zoologist and botanist. This last role was fulfilled part-time by medical officer and botanical collector, Dr Hermann Beckler. Beckler was to resign when the Expedition reached Menindee on the Darling River. He remained there awaiting a replacement doctor for the Expedition, and was at last able to make considerable progress with his botanical findings. He sent 120 plant specimens to Ferdinand Mueller at the Melbourne Herbarium, where they are housed. Only one plant specimen was painted in the field, and this task was never completed. As part of the 150th recognition of the Expedition, a group of Melbourne botanical artists decided to celebrate Dr Hermann Beckler's contribution by revisiting his plant collections made in Menindee. Every year since 2010 a group, led by botanical artist Mali Moir and with generous help from botanist Andrew Denham, has spent time searching for, collecting and pressing specimens for lodgement in the Melbourne and Sydney herbariums, and painting them. This exciting and challenging project has culminated with the Beckler's Botanical Bounty Exhibition at the Ballarat Gallery, opened on 27 February by Professor Tim Entwisle, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria. The Cranbourne Friends botanical illustrators group will be travelling to Ballarat to see the exhibition on Wednesday 14 March. All welcome. Preparations are well underway for our exhibition. Beckler's Botanical Bounty Exhibition 25th February to 27th May 2018 at the Art Gallery of Ballarat 40 paintings, by 24 artists, have been selected. These paintings are stunning representations of the plants of the Menindee area. All have been painted with scientific accuracy and many have microscopic dissections of seeds and reproductive parts of the plant. With us in Menindee have been other artists, including a film artist, and their work will be on display too. So a total of 27 artists! You can watch a slide show of photos which explains and documents the project. We also hope that it will give you a glimpse into our favourite arid inland area, and understand what it is that draws us back each year. There are cabinets of objects that will allow you to dive deeper into our four themes ~ Art, Country, History and Science. For example you will be able to see the actual painting tools used to create one of the art works. Alongside these are the sketchbooks, colour charts and working drawings, showing the preliminary work before paint gets put onto the good paper. Personally I love little peeks 'behind the scenes', to see how art works are created. And there will be a catalogue for you to buy, to take away and read at your leisure.
So lots to see. The Gallery is a short walk from the Ballarat station and the town has plenty of other things to offer. Gather some friends and have a perfect day's outing! We have been delighted with the response to our crowd funding campaign. Thank you to those who have donated. However, if you haven't donated, there is still a little time.....so jump over to our crowd funding site to make your donation. We have always been aware that our Project has a place in history. It has brought Dr Beckler’s contribution to Australian plant knowledge to the fore.
We collect specimens to sit alongside Beckler’s in the National Herbarium of Victoria, and each specimen has detailed records of habitat, soil conditions, GPS location and so on. This provides current data on plants that exist in the Menindee Lakes/Kinchega National Park area, data that, when combined with Beckler’s collection, could be very useful for longitudinal studies. It is a great example of how citizen scientists can contribute to scientific knowledge. Plans for our Exhibition are well under way, but we would like to further our plans for the Project with funding for future publications. We would love you to help us with our Project. The second in our series about how Roslyn Glow goes about painting her plant Atriplex stipitata. Her first post was about her research into the plant. Colour matching It is important to get the colours right before the specimen dries out /dies/fades. I paint little patches of colour and label them. I use the same paper as my final painting. I notice that, under a hand lens or microscope, the surface of the plant looks as if sprinkled with crystals of some kind. Since this is a salt bush, I infer that they are salt crystals. I don’t know how to depict this. I discuss it with others. Mali Moir, project leader, suggests that Margaret Holloway (an artist involved in this project) has solved a similar problem. I make a mental note to consult Margaret when I get back to Melbourne. I paint a blow up of the fruit and of the male inflorescence, using the binocular microscope. I don’t have a digital microscope, so I try to photograph parts of the plant through the binocular microscope. This is not really successful. Composition
The next task is to decide on a composition. Ideally the painting should show the back and front of a leaf, a bud, a flower, a fruit and any feature used to identify the species, including microscopic studies if microscopic features are essential for identification. Since the plant is dioecious, these details should be present for both male and female plants. The habit of the plant should also be shown, either in full or by implication. We can’t always reach the ideal. I play around with my specimens, before realising that with only one small fragment with a fruit and a couple of sprigs with male inflorescences, my options are limited. Celia Rosser, who painted all the banksias was careful to show all stages of growth of buds to mature fruits. This often required her to paint more than one branch. She carefully arranged two branches into a pleasing composition. Sometimes, at first glance it looks like a single branch, but the two branches are always separated although they form a single composition. I decide to follow a similar path. I arrange my two sprigs as best I can. We are taught to do a series of ‘thumbnail’ sketches before committing to a composition. I can’t think of any more than one. I consult Pam McDiamid, a fellow artist whose skill in composition and speed of decision making I much admire. She realigns my larger sprig. I am happy with the result. She advises me to do the thumbnails. I prepare the thumbnail sheet, but can’t think of any alternatives. The big decision is whether or not to include microscope studies, and if so, which details should I depict, at what magnification. And where should I place them. Recording the composition I photograph the specimen in its chosen position. I will print these photos when I return to Melbourne. Rough sketch I make a series of rough sketches, using my softest pencil (an 8B), on sketch paper. The size doesn’t matter, in fact the bigger the better, to get the character of the plant. The series ends with one in 2B, at about the right size. This is the part of the process I enjoy the most. Next time, in the last in the series, Roslyn will take us through the painting stage, and you will be able to see the finished painting. After our plants have been identified we begin the next part ~ the painting. Roslyn Glow has written about her process for painting Atriplex stipitata. This is the first in the series of three posts that describe the process. In this one she looks at researching and understanding her plant. Roslyn's piece was written at the request of our honorary botanist, who provides us with invaluable help. Getting to know the plant. Atriplex stipitata (Bitter saltbush, Mallee saltbush, Kidney saltbush) is a modest subject, but I know from experience that, no matter what my initial reaction, by the time I have studied a plant and found out a bit about how it makes its living and the history of its discovery, I will undoubtedly find it fascinating. I turn the specimens around, and view them from every angle. Because very little material is available in this case, I have little to choose from. I try to identify the male and female flowers. The female flowers are hard to identify. They are said to occur singly or a few together in the leaf axils. I paste various parts of the plant onto a scrap-book page, using book covering film. There is not enough plant material to paste up a complete series of parts and look at them under the microscope as well. The fruit is easy to identify. I look under the microscope, and try to dissect what I think is a female flower, but am unable to identify any parts. (Later I find that the female flower can be embedded in the material of the stem, unable to be examined until dissected out.) There is only one little specimen that is clearly female. I choose the more handsome of the specimens with male inflorescences, to depict in my painting. That night, I use my i-pad to research the plant. Next day I copy the most important identifying features of the plant onto my sketchpad. I am interested to find that this species can be monoecious or dioecious. Mine is dioecious, that is male and female flowers are on separate plants. The “Picture Book” (Cunningham et al) has a picture of my plant, and a drawing of the fruit. I trace this drawing onto my sketchpad. I note that my specimen’s leaves are partially closed, while the photos on the internet show the leaves as more or less flat. Eventually I discover the reason for this. When the soil is very dry, the leaves close, presumably to help conserve moisture. My specimens were clearly thirsty. Google finds me plenty of photos of A. stipitata but no paintings, and few drawings. The only comprehensive one is by Margaret Flockton, (1861-1953) the first person employed in Australia as a botanical illustrator. Next time Roslyn will tell us about how the composition of her painting, as well as the colour matching that she does.
After we have been out in the field we take all the plants we have found back to the Civic Hall in Menindee to begin the proper identification process. This involves working through identification keys in respected publications such as Flora of New South Wales and its online publication, PlantNET. It is amazing how your knowledge of botanical terms increases when you have to use the keys. Is the surface glaucous? Farinose? Punctate? Or perhaps Rugose? For many identifying features you need a magnifying glass or even a microscope. And often a buddy to help you sort through it all! Then there is the task of keeping your specimen alive to be able to paint it. We find that take away coffee cups are invaluable, but we use what ever comes to hand!
Finding the plants that Beckler collected on the Burke and Wills Expedition is not always easy! We are always grateful to our friends who have expert knowledge of plants in the area. Our first foray was back along the Broken Hill Road. It always amazes us how so many little plants grow in what looks like a boring salt bush habitat. You just need to get out of the car and have a potter around.
So we collect (with permission and according to herbarium guidelines) plants that we think are on Beckler's list. Then it is back to the hall to make final identifications. |
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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