Christmas in July
On a cold July day a Scarlet Robin alights on a branch of a silver birch tree. What a contrast his bright feathers make to the bleak winter tones surrounding him. I am reminded of a shiny bauble in a Christmas tree – establishing with his radiant presence a feeling that all is, after all, well.
May Bouquet
In Western Australia and beyond, Araluen Botanic Park in Perth’s hills is famous for its spring tulip festival. Last year I visited during tulip time when both flowers and crowds of people abounded. One visit was not enough so I went again – and then I couldn’t stop. Spring morphed into summer; the tulips and the crowds disappeared. I bought an annual pass. I watched as early summer became blistering summer and then turned to the relief of autumn.
As I write this blog post it is early winter. When misty winter rains fall, the garden becomes quite mysterious. I am reminded of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 novel “The Secret Garden“.
Every time I go something new is flowering. I visit every couple of weeks. I photograph flora and fauna as I wander about or sit and reflect. Araluen has become a treasured part of my existence.
My plan is to do a collection of Araluen drawings throughout the seasons. Whether I achieve this or not – we’ll see – however, consider “May Bouquet”, an autumn exuberance with New Holland Honeyeater, as the first in the series.
Home & Heart – local love stories
When the world closed down to travel in 2020, my mission became to find my muse at home. I set out to rediscover my neighbourhood, to open up my mental borders and ‘travel’ here.
During my home wanderings – in all seasons – I came to appreciate our gorgeous birds living in this small corner of Western Australia. (They are easily missed if one isn’t tuned into them.) As my concentration on both my Fremantle neighbourhood and local birds deepened, I hardly minded that I couldn’t travel any more.
Apart from Fremantle, other places represented in this exhibition are Donnelly River, Araluen Botanic Park, Matilda Bay, Point Walter, Karnup and The Berry Farm in Margaret River.
In 2023 we may travel again; “Home & Heart – local love stories” is my visual response to when we couldn’t. In the last couple of years I felt gratitude and wonder as our unique local landscapes, colours, quality of light, and life, gently reminded me of their presence and solace.
I am delighted to be showing my coloured pencil drawings alongside sculptures by my friend and fellow artist, Robyn Varpins. This will be our fifth exhibition together.
Robyn Varpins writes – “I was rather pleased to not be able to travel due to Covid as I have always enjoyed being home more than anywhere else. I love this place.
Our title really expresses how I feel. I nestled into my home and delved deeply into what it is that makes me love this place so much. It was a joy to “seek the sacred in the mundane” and notice anew the beauty all around me. It was a journey inward to explore my perceptions and attitudes towards “Home”.
I investigated our rich and varied connection to Nature, particularly the quiet space of our back yards and gardens. That private oasis is where one can fully be at ease and nourished by simply Being. I enjoyed becoming one with the garden (where does the garden end and I begin?) Here one may keenly appreciate our treasured native birds, as well as the friendship and love of the animals in our lives.
It took some time to translate the theme into clay forms that expressed my felt experience of loving this place. Each sculpture expresses one small corner of this huge theme. I really enjoyed adding oil paint to many of my clay pieces, as the rich colour makes them more exuberant and alive.”
This is just a taster. Please join us between 20 and 30 April at EARLYWORK to see our exhibition. We welcome you!
All the drawings destined for the exhibition can be seen here
Click here to listen to a 37 minute interview with Robyn and myself about our art exhibition.
Radiant Guest
When my daughter Lucy came to visit from Sydney last spring I took her to Lake Gwelup to show her the rainbow bee-eaters. Together we observed, marveled at, and photographed these vivacious creatures at their Gwelup breeding ground.
Rainbow bee-eaters fly south from northern Australia to the rest of the country each spring. While here they dig tunnels in order to lay their eggs underground, then rear their young over summer. They head back north in autumn. During their visit to our suburbs they attract attention and feature prominently on Facebook in bird photography groups. Photographers outdo one another to capture in-flight photos. I’m quite happy with a perching bird as I like to study its expression.
The rainbow bee-eater in my drawing sits on a branch of a banksia tree keeping an eye out for flying things to eat. The dappled sunlight effects on foliage and bird are suggestive to me of stained glass – perhaps a Tiffany lamp.
I didn’t even know these birds existed until 2021. And during this last summer I realized that some pairs were nesting just a few streets from where I live in North Coogee. I heard their calls on the wind and followed the sound. While it is crazy to suggest that there could be a silver lining to the Covid-19 storm cloud; still, I only became aware of our beautiful birds because I was stuck in my state!
Under the Rose Bush
When Lucy and I visited Araluen Botanic Park, quite possibly I whispered, “Look there, under the rose bush”, or perhaps she saw the splendid fairy wren first and alerted me to his presence. Either way we both have images of him on our cameras. And now he is a drawing and will be part of my April 2023 exhibition.
Araluen Botanic Park is my new favourite place. It is a 14 hectare developed garden set in 59 hectares of West Australian native bush in the Perth hills. So many birds work and play there; busy in the tall trees, at eye level in shrubs, hopping low in the leaf litter – birds and bush, birds and flowers. I go regularly for the good health of my soul.
Araluen’s website is https://araluenbotanicpark.com.au/
Lucy and her ‘Muv’ (me) with our cameras at Araluen.
Lucy and Farve (Matthew). Matthew has become an Araluen fan as well. (And yes, there’s a café.)
Afterword: 27 January 2023 – below are photos I took today of some other Araluen Botanic Park residents.
Ready to Fly
I am a bit obsessed with our Rainbow Container Sculpture in East Fremantle. How the colours do change depending on time of day and atmospherics. My newest drawing “Ready to Fly” shows the sculpture on a fiercely clear autumn day. Early morning sun and fresh air result in THE SHOCK OF THE BRIGHT.
How does a seagull in the foreground compete with such forceful colours behind? It flaps its wings and manages to grab our attention with an upward thrust. Off you go.
In my two previous rainbow sculpture drawings “All is Calm” and “Colour My World” there is smoke in the air due to prescribed fire hazard-reduction burns. The colours of the sculpture are considerably muted by hazy atmospherics.
The sculpture in reality is absolutely hard-edge; made from shipping containers. But I don’t want to draw hard-edged containers which is why I employ an accommodating bird to focus on. (How often I wait in vain for one to show up!)
Now that I have drawn the sculpture so many times (four pictures but one didn’t survive) I feel positively drawn to it . When I see it in the distance, usually from a car, I feel a connection thanks to all the hours I have spent observing and rendering it in various lights. As to the birds, they sooth my soul.
Double Happy
I spend hours trying to get source photos for drawings. Wandering, standing, sitting, striding out and exhausting myself while looking for something inspirational and eye-catching. In November I spent a couple of days staring into garden beds at The Berry Farm in Margaret River observing birds and trying to get inspired photos of them.
The flowers at The Berry Farm are magnificent yet I find it difficult to photograph birds among them. Those poky birds are more likely to be perched on café furniture, hopping on concrete paths or playing hide and seek in leafy trees.
However patience paid dividends. I got a couple of beauties. I call this drawing “Double Happy” because the bird (a New Holland honeyeater) and flowers remind me of a burst of fireworks. (‘Double Happy‘ was the brand name of fire crackers we used to let off on Guy Fawkes night, 5th November, when I was a child.) Double happy describes my state of bliss at capturing both bird and flowers together!
Here are some more drawings I have done over the past 15 months from The Berry Farm visits…
They’re all on human furniture aren’t they!? You can see why I am double happy to finally be able to draw a bird in Berry Farm’s luscious flowers.
Colour My World
In August I did a drawing which I called “Colour My World”. You can see it below – at least – a photo of it pasted into my art journal. The drawing itself is no more. After much deliberation I decided it was claustrophobic and I couldn’t bear it.
I was sorry to have ripped up the bird because I liked him and the title (just not the rest of it). So I decided to try this subject again. I delved through my photos from that April day.
This time I cropped the container sculpture. The bird looks away from the viewer towards the morning sun. To my way of thinking the new drawing looks expansive, light and airy. It doesn’t suffer from (my perceived) sense of cramped space as the first one did.
I was plagued by doubt while working on the new drawing thinking it might also fail, however I kept going and in the end I have a sense of triumph. What’s more – Matthew likes it – and that’s the main thing!
All is Calm
The sun sinks, casting its last rays on East Fremantle’s “Rainbow” sea container sculpture. In the foreground a crested tern, already in shadow, rests on a pole at North Fremantle foreshore. At the first touch of an autumn dusk all is calm, all is bright.
“All is Calm” is a drawing featuring the rainbow sculpture – a much loved piece of public art in my neighbourhood. I took the source photograph for this drawing during the month of April 2022.
Below are some of the photos I’ve taken over the past year of the rainbow sculpture.
The Prettiest Star
In the past I have written about “undercover white” (Click on the underlined words to see the post). This is my method of putting a layer of white underneath colour to increase its glow and luminosity.
In this drawing I did something different – and for the first time. I put a light layer of grey underneath all of the surroundings (but not under the bird himself) before putting colour layers over the top. I did so because I wanted the background to be exceedingly muted. My hope was that the purple-backed fairy wren, with his pure un-greyed colours, would stand out from all the rest.
I drew the same bird several months ago. “Beautiful Bird” sold earlier this year but I liked him so much that I did another drawing of him for my April 2023 exhibition.
In the latest drawing “The Prettiest Star” (thank you, David Bowie, for the title) the bird is slightly inclining his head towards the viewer.
Here is the drawing I did last December. Both drawings are sourced from a photo-burst I took of him while he stood still for at least two seconds. Purple-backed fairy wrens don’t hang about for long.
Julie Podstolski - Abstract Realism 