South Australian Living Artists Festival, 1-31 August, 2020
Welcome to my on-line gallery of recent drawings plus a virtual tour of my studio in the Adelaide Hills.
I am constantly on the lookout in my garden, nearby parks and reserves and my local florist for interesting subjects for my drawings of the natural world, be they living or long past their prime. To see the details of my subjects, I routinely take multiple photographic images in various lighting conditions in the field or in my studio, then enlarge the images digitally. In this way I have replaced the microscopes from my previous scientific days with my macro lens and computer software. To encourage others to appreciate the beauty I see in the details of nature, my drawings are routinely large in scale with the subjects greatly magnified. I use only graphite or coloured pencil – I find the slow process of large drawings on paper quite meditative, although frustration can rear up at times! An essential part of my current art practice is to identify and research my subjects. While I don’t restrict myself to botanicals, plants of many types and developmental stages feature commonly in my recent work, examples of which are shown in the video and the gallery below.
Virtual studio tour
Gallery of recent drawings
LEGENDS, top of left column to bottom of right column
Eryngium planum (2019) pencil on cotton rag, framed 72x80cm (SOLD) Winner of Madeleine Taylor Best in Show Award, Botanical Art Society of Australia, 2019
Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) (2019), pencil on cotton rag, framed 56x66cm (SOLD)
Black Kangaroo Paw (Macropidia fuliginosa) (2020) pencil on cotton rag, framed 54x48cm. Highly Commended, Botanical Art Society of Australia, 2022
Black Kangaroo Paw Dried Flower (2020) pencil on cotton rag, framed 71x60cm
White Correa (Correa alba) (2020) pencil on cotton rag (2020), 28x42cm unframed (SOLD)
Tall Sundew (Drosera auriculata) (2020) pencil and white ink on cotton rag, framed 87x71cm (SOLD)
Red Cockscomb (Celosia argentea) (2020) pencil and pastel on cotton rag, framed 74x59cm
Pincushion Flower (Scabiosa caucasica) (2019) pencil on cotton rag, framed 67x53cm
Pink Cockscomb (Celosia argentea) (2020) pencil and white ink on cotton rag, framed 68x62cm