Waratahs

I have gotten several questions about waratahs, especially from people who live outside Australia who have never seen or heard of them. Before I moved here, I hadn't either. I am offering a selection of three photos of these lovely native Aussie flowers. I will be starting a new waratahs painting, so I have these photos out anyhow, looking to decide which of them will be a reference for the new painting.

Waratahs are great subjects for a painting, or for an arrangement. They have a structural quality and they are very striking. With a very characteristic shape not shared by many other flowers, they are very distinctive. Like many native flowers here, they are a long lasting cut bloom and also long lasting on their plant. They bloom just once a year, but are so spectacular, it is worth the one season a year wait for their blooms.

Waratahs are traditional in red but as you see they do come in white and also pink. The red one on the right is Telopea speciosissima and belongs to the Proteaceae family of plants. It is a floral emblem of the state of New South Wales and it features on many emblems and logos in stylised form. The ones in the mixed color arrangement above that look pale green are probably considered "white". Waratah hybrid varieties now also come in yellow, but I haven't seen that sort yet. There is a native white form that is considered a bit rare. They are hybridised too, as the white one shown below here (which is from my garden).

Another traditional Aussie native flower here are flannel flowers. A very delicate flower with a star shape of a creamy warm white on a grey green foliage plant. The come into bloom in October to December. Here in my garden to bloomed about a week ago, so a bit early due to the warm winter we had. I will have to post how they look now en masse blooming in another post. They got red dust on them from recent dust storms, so I need to let them get rinsed in rain we expect this weekend, or when I next water them...then I can photograph them ! But here is one.

Waratahs and flannel flowers are notoriously difficult to grow in many gardens. I am lucky they both seem to like this area :)

Sentry

Last weekend I spent a few days in South Australia, painting at Jacqueline Coates' gallery Salon Rouge in the small and peaceful township of Kapunda. The town is between the Barossa and Clare Valleys, both fine wine-making regions in that state.

While at Salon Rouge I did some encaustics painting, starting a new direction that I am researching and planning to pursue, paintings inspired by the Imperial Palace in China. Here is a pic of me working on some of the encaustics paintings I have started (also see previous post below for some examples). Salon Rouge has a great set up for the encaustics and many more colors than I have in my smaller home studio space.

It was also fantastic to catch up with other artists there and learn what they are working on. There is a great exhibition on the walls of the gallery at the moment. 'Reclaimed' explores art made from recycled and salvaged materials. Absolutely awesome stuff ! Check out the landscapes painted on wine barrel lids by Deb Hilditch, and sculpture compositions made from old tin ceilings by Ilona Glastonbury, and much more. See www.salonrougegallery.com for more info on this current exhibition.

When leaving Kapunda to return home, I stopped to photograph some of the local landscapes. The area has had a lot of rain lately, breaking a previous drought. It has really greened up nicely. I saw some sheep and decided a landscape with them might be nice, I stopped by the side of the road and began to photograph them, using a nice optical zoom I have on my new small camera. There were ewes with new lambs, and all the sheep seemed peacefully grazing in the afternoon sunlight. All was well and good in their world. Then ! One sheep, at the top of the hill, noticed me and decided I was too close I guess. I think he was their Sentry. He let out a very loud bleating call and all the sheep close to the fence line turned and ran away !! When they were far enough from me and the fence, they resumed their grazing, and Sheep Sentry kept an eye in my direction, to be sure I kept at a suitably safe distance.

I had not meant to disturb or bother the grazing animals, but guess they felt I was too close for safety. I did get a few more photos of the sheep, relying more on the zoom than I had wanted...but oh well. Then I headed back to the car for my drive back to the airport. Still, a good afternoon and now I have running sheep in pasture to add to my photo library !

Inspired Year

Here is a preview of the work I have been doing while away in South Australia the past couple of days. Medium is encaustics--beeswax, resin, and oil paint pigment melted and applied to art boards I have made up. The subject is inspired by colors and patterns seen at the Imperial Palaces at the Forbidden City, in Beijing China. I visited there in June and had some awesome photos of detail seen on the temples and palaces there. Deep reds, bright golds, and vivid greens featured well and have made it into my latest run of encaustics. The reds you see there are created in several red-like layers, scarlet, bright red, darker bricky red and orange. After I apply the encaustics in layers, I scrape and carve it to expose layers, color, detail, pattern, etc. It also gets hand polished, with a cotton cloth or old piece of wool.

The paintings you see here are not done. They weren't intended to be painted as a pair either. They are inspired by the same reference, a carved architectural panel on a doorway of a temple. However, they seem to go together as a set very well and so they will be further developed as a set. I like that they are clearly similarly inspired, but not same-same alike. More to do on them, so stay tuned.

Meanwhile, I am off enjoying my Birthday...See you next post

when I will be a bit older, or so I am told ;)