Obrepat (Latin: creep in or encroachment)
Walking into land, the breeze of friendship rustles majestic gums rooted into white sand, whispering, "Welcome".
Wild flowers of violet and yellow dance across wetlands, enticing footsteps of curiosity.
Bushland reaches back, low and inland, accompanying the meandering creek, tidal in its nature.
Yet turn around and the creeping in of humanity frames the view.
A flat carved up landscape inhabited by juxtaposition dwellings squeezed onto minimal plots, bordered by imposter vegetation.
Like a weed, it's ever hungry and demanding for more space.
The majestic gums, wildflowers and bushland await 'Obrepat'.
This small series is about the loss of natural bushland and habitat due to the continued land development around Brunswick Heads in the Byron Shire of NSW, near where I live. I have gathered gum leaves from the trees that I speak of in the above poem to create the beautiful velvety black plant dyed paper. This has been collaged onto the acrylic monoprints on hosho art paper. Hosho paper has a very fine and delicate quality. It is made from mulberry leaves.
All works are acrylic monoprints with plant dyed collage on Hosho paper, unframed.
This beautiful small series of artworks are available for sale. Please contact Melinda for details here.
Walking into land, the breeze of friendship rustles majestic gums rooted into white sand, whispering, "Welcome".
Wild flowers of violet and yellow dance across wetlands, enticing footsteps of curiosity.
Bushland reaches back, low and inland, accompanying the meandering creek, tidal in its nature.
Yet turn around and the creeping in of humanity frames the view.
A flat carved up landscape inhabited by juxtaposition dwellings squeezed onto minimal plots, bordered by imposter vegetation.
Like a weed, it's ever hungry and demanding for more space.
The majestic gums, wildflowers and bushland await 'Obrepat'.
This small series is about the loss of natural bushland and habitat due to the continued land development around Brunswick Heads in the Byron Shire of NSW, near where I live. I have gathered gum leaves from the trees that I speak of in the above poem to create the beautiful velvety black plant dyed paper. This has been collaged onto the acrylic monoprints on hosho art paper. Hosho paper has a very fine and delicate quality. It is made from mulberry leaves.
All works are acrylic monoprints with plant dyed collage on Hosho paper, unframed.
This beautiful small series of artworks are available for sale. Please contact Melinda for details here.
2021 | closure
watercolour and pencil on cardboard
In 2021 I found myself moving house, yet again, due to the COVID 'knock on' effect of an influx of city residents in the Byron Shire. From which I had lots of packing cardboard at the end of it.
Stepping into a 'Plant Life Drawing' art course at the local community college, it seemed a perfect and sustainable 'good art practice' surface to explore. On the first day I was given a 'Buddleja' or Davidii flowering stem to draw. Apparently the plant is originally from China, and yet, declared a weed in the USA. It's also called the Butterfly Bush as it attracts many of them when in flower. It symbolises growth, rebirth, resurrection and new beginnings. The latter seemingly a perfect metaphor for my recent move which had taken me out of the Byron Shire and away from my community of over 20 years.
I had decided to take this art course to challenge myself, and my inner critic, on my drawing skills. I also decided to explore a new medium, namely watercolours. So what started as a freshly picked yellow flowering stem, over the course of eight weeks, became a decaying, dried, dead mass of curling leaves and stems. I could have had a fresh flower each week to work with, but something had me returning to this one Buddleja stem. I actually began to enjoy the withering and fading of it. The beautiful silvery and grey tones of the leaves, the delicate nature of the fading yellow flowers releasing their seeds, and the overall fragility the decaying plant offered my eye and soul.
Perhaps that is why I felt I needed to add the bold geometric shapes as a strengthening and holding container to the plant's decay. I know I was experiencing my own version of fragility and vulnerability at this time, adjusting to the move away from my Byron Shire community. It felt like a form of closure.
Closure
Held in fingertips
Fragile to the holding
All I can offer is...
closure.
All works are in watercolour, graphite and colour pencil on cardboard, unframed.
This beautiful small series of artworks are available for sale. Please contact Melinda for details here.
Stepping into a 'Plant Life Drawing' art course at the local community college, it seemed a perfect and sustainable 'good art practice' surface to explore. On the first day I was given a 'Buddleja' or Davidii flowering stem to draw. Apparently the plant is originally from China, and yet, declared a weed in the USA. It's also called the Butterfly Bush as it attracts many of them when in flower. It symbolises growth, rebirth, resurrection and new beginnings. The latter seemingly a perfect metaphor for my recent move which had taken me out of the Byron Shire and away from my community of over 20 years.
I had decided to take this art course to challenge myself, and my inner critic, on my drawing skills. I also decided to explore a new medium, namely watercolours. So what started as a freshly picked yellow flowering stem, over the course of eight weeks, became a decaying, dried, dead mass of curling leaves and stems. I could have had a fresh flower each week to work with, but something had me returning to this one Buddleja stem. I actually began to enjoy the withering and fading of it. The beautiful silvery and grey tones of the leaves, the delicate nature of the fading yellow flowers releasing their seeds, and the overall fragility the decaying plant offered my eye and soul.
Perhaps that is why I felt I needed to add the bold geometric shapes as a strengthening and holding container to the plant's decay. I know I was experiencing my own version of fragility and vulnerability at this time, adjusting to the move away from my Byron Shire community. It felt like a form of closure.
Closure
Held in fingertips
Fragile to the holding
All I can offer is...
closure.
All works are in watercolour, graphite and colour pencil on cardboard, unframed.
This beautiful small series of artworks are available for sale. Please contact Melinda for details here.
2021 | the ground of being (the blue series)
acrylic, pencil, tissue and plant dyed paper collage
A velvety black plant dyed paper from locally gathered Australian gum leaves is the metaphor for 'The Ground of Being'.
That which is always present, of everything, and conductor to every moment. This small blue series was created from an ongoing commitment to meditation and the study of non duality. When wordless images of inspiration arise in my awareness, pointing me back, down, and into the Silence.
The Ground of Being - a wordless place of rest.
All works are in watercolour, colour pencil, tissue and plant dyed paper, unframed.
This beautiful small series of artworks are available for sale. Please contact Melinda for details here.
That which is always present, of everything, and conductor to every moment. This small blue series was created from an ongoing commitment to meditation and the study of non duality. When wordless images of inspiration arise in my awareness, pointing me back, down, and into the Silence.
The Ground of Being - a wordless place of rest.
All works are in watercolour, colour pencil, tissue and plant dyed paper, unframed.
This beautiful small series of artworks are available for sale. Please contact Melinda for details here.