Botanical Art Exhibition in Sydney

The Royal Botanical Gardens Sydney is currently holding its annual 'Botanica' exhibition. This exhibition celebrates 20 years of Australia's leading contemporary botanical artists and their paintings.  It runs from 30 March until 14th April 2019 at the Lion Gate Lodge at the Gardens in Sydney.

I was thrilled when four of my five paintings were the first to sell on opening night. They all have a story to tell, and were all a labour of love.  Last year was an extremely busy year for me, so I surprised myself when I managed to complete five painting, two of them very large.

Eucalyptus vinimalis

 Last year I took a sketching group to the Flinders Ranges which was called 'The Hans Heyson Trail',  While there we visited Hahndorf and explored the famous 'Cedars' which was Hans Heyson's home and studio. I fell in love with the beautiful Eucalyptus vinimalis, commonly known as Manna Gum, with their peeling bark and beautiful colours.

I decided I would paint this once I returned home and only a large scale painting would do justice to its beauty and majesty. Mostly I painted it on the dining room table, but would occasionally put it on a vertical surface where I could get better perspective on what I was doing.

This was the result. I included the background as this was actually where it was growing, just outside the Cedars with others trees in the background.  I loved every minute of painting this subect!

 Here is a photo of me on opening night with the Sold sticker. I know the new owner of this painting will love it as much as I did.

Grevillea victoriae

 For the Botanica exhibition 2018 I painted and sold a much smaller painting (below) of the Grevillea victoriae, where I had collected the specimen when staying with a friend in Uralla, NSW. So it also had a special significance. Below is also the habitat background which I also love painting.

If you look at the larger painting above, you can probably see that it is an enlargement of some of the buds from the painting below, but enlarged x10. The large finished painting was 580mm wide x 760 mm high.

 And last but not least I sold the three bankia paintings below. They were framed separately and were approximately A5 size, which is perfect as it is easy to find a spot of a wall. These three were actually the very first paintings sold on opening night at Botanica.

I am about to start work on a new painting which will be for the Florilegium Society of the Botanical Gardens of Sydney and will be for the prestigious 2020 exhibition celebrating 200 year since Banks and Solander were in Sydney collecting specimens.

So I will keep you posted on how this new painting progresses.