This new series is a culmination of many years of bush wanderings and wildflower spotting around my local area. I am so fortunate to live in such a beautiful place. The biodiversity is incredible and Anglesea Heath is one of the wildflower hotbeds in Victoria.
I thought it would be nice to share some of the inspiration, photographs and sketches that brought this series together. I really wanted to not only capture the individual species, but how they situate themselves in the environment.
Some of our local flowers are so tiny - yet spectacular up close! I wanted to celebrate this. So many of them are hiding in plain sight, especially those sneaky orchids.
I painted some familiar favourites, hello grass tree! I also painted some less commonly known flowers demonstrating the biodiversity of the area. I am a strong believer that appreciation is the first step in conservation. So if I can actively introduce a few new species to my community and share my love of them - only good can come from that.
I've spent a good deal of time exploring and looking for local orchid species. I even keep a little notebook of finds. There are a couple of wonderful books by Margaret MacDonald that help immensely with identification. Angair is an amazing resource too.
I largely worked on this series when my little guy was very small and sleep was difficult - so I had to rely quite heavily on photographs and memories to pull it together. I've found when I work from memory an extra special something gets embedded in the work, I can't find the words to describe it.
There is something in flower year round on our coast. I particularly love it when the heath and wattle come out as you know spring is not too far away.
I chose to include some birds in a couple of pieces too, birds and flowers are so inextricably linked. We have so many amazing little birds and their song is the soundtrack to this series.
