#thebigseeddraw this SUNDAY + OPEN STUDIO NOV 22 - 30

This Sunday I am conducting a drawing workshop with a difference ... this one will be FREE,  communal and relaxed... with all materials provided. 

UPDATE: SORRY TO SAY THIS EVENT HAS NOW BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO EXTREME TEMPERATURES TODAY IN BRISBANE. 

Brisbane City Council OH & S made a call on this yesterday afternoon when 42C was confirmed as likely temperature for the day. 

NB: I'lll be offering this free activity at my Studio over 9 days starting next weekend.

Between 9am and 1pm on Sunday morning people will be able to wander into an large marquee set up next to the Community Gardens at Seventeen Mile Rocks on the Brisbane River north west of the city cbd. 

This is a close up of the program where The Big Seed Draw is listed. Read that program here. 

Anyone who takes part in THE BIG SEED DRAW can take a photo of their drawing and post on FB, Twitter or Instagram with HASHTAG #thebigseeddraw to go in the draw for prizes listed on this flyer below:

I will also be running some sessions of the #TheBigSeedDraw at the upcoming OPEN STUDIO event from November 22 to 30 at my SeedArtLab Studio in Chermside, Brisbane. 

So if your based in the  Brisbane region but can't make Sunday please put the studio event in your diary and come and join us there... from Midday till 5pm over 9 days.

Student work from QACI 

OPEN STUDIO EVENT coming up at my studio!

If you have any questions please contact me ... and watch my FB page and Instagram for updates. We will have several special things you can participate in during this 9 day event.

I'll be back with photo from this event soon!
                                                               Sophie

A week in the Wet Tropics region of Northern QLD

So much to share here but not much time with only 24 hours left up in Cairns before I head back to Brisbane after a week getting acquainted with the area and the place where I will do a residency in September/October.... Tanks Arts Centre and Cairns Botanic Gardens. I wrote a couple of posts on this trip at the other two blogs... one about visiting the World Heritage Site at the Daintree National Park...

Mossman River at the Mossman Gorge

The other post about my new journal and drawings of pods and rainforest fruits I've been collecting.

the new journal

Click those links to go see the images.
   Back home soon!
      Sophie

Revisiting 'Ways of Seeing'

In March I posted on the varying ways we see the world. Lovers of the visual realm, literature and the arts in general get to appreciate this continually as we investigate new discoveries and revisit the old. Some of us are very eclectic in out tastes...whereas other may be more focused on a particular theme, style, genre or mood.

I wanted to make a link here to that March post for its broad ranging approaches to the botanical world demonstrated by diverse artists....most found at one source.

David Hockney

Rudolf Blaschka

Tonight I also posted a story on Christchurch, New Zealand which contained  works from a various artists -all New Zealand artists past and present - one working with native plants as a subject for beautiful large pastel drawings. Click here to see that post.

Marlborough Rock Daisy I - Marilyn Rae-Menzies

collecting seeds and pods... collecting stories...

Last week in the Seed Lab at Mt Coot-tha was a rather brief visit. Whilst engaged in conversation in the Lab I had aquarelle colour pencils on hand and the seed journal so did manage to do a little light drawing. The pods below made a good subject after discovering a package left at the reception desk at the Gardens by long serving volunteer guide Carmel O'Keefe with whom I hope to catch up with soon to hear stories she has in mind to share on various seeds. I was very delighted that she was so thoughtful as to label the pods and bring them to Reception.

Albizia lebbeck is indigenous to Australia but not uniquely so... being found in quite a large number of locations outside this Continent. I found the forms satisfying to work with - as you will note some are more dried out and motley tones. The greener ones had a stark outline that reminded one almost of a caricature of a pod.

Some of the volunteer guides, Garden staff and others further afield are hearing that I am on the lookout for interesting seed pods and capsules over this year and keen to collect stories on various species of seeds and plants with samples where possible.

This has led to quite an number of people kindly coming forward... for which I am very grateful. Tapping in to so much available material is extremely beneficial and the anecdotal information can add greatly to available documentation. This year there will be a number of gatherings for discussions on  seeds and stories - the first is planned for the 5th of June which is World Environment Day. A flyer and details will be available next week about this event you are invited to attend if you are able to get to Mt Coot-tha on that day. I will be taking bookings - although it will be a free event - to ensure we have plans firmly in place for a lively gathering.

With appreciation to those who have shared material for this project to date!


Below: For the Embiggen gallery show I made cards using artwork from the Homage journal. So much work is to be found in the pages of one's journals that never ends up on the Gallery walls and the exhibition provided the perfect opportunity to offer the cards. The store carries an intoxicating range of books from the broad realm of the Sciences and quality Art and Design titles as well as more general titles and literature. 
Journal pages showing work from the seed lab and notes from research were ideal in this context. I will continue to sell these cards at events this year  -  you're welcome to place a request through this blog. ( schedule permitting for turnaround time-frame!)

Exhibition coming up soon: April 18 and 19

Please click on the invitation  to enlarge!
The exhibition runs over 3 weeks... please contact for exact dates and further details. 


Embiggen Books and Gallery - 'where art meets science' -
embiggenbooks.com

WAYS OF SEEING - a visit to dear ada

       In the previous post I referred to the fact there are a great many approaches to Botanical subject matter in the Visual Arts. In the field of Scientific Botanical Illustration there is and no doubt always will be variation and invention, even in this most classical of arenas.
Ways of seeing indeed!
I thought I would highlight the curious and imagination directions of some artists working with botanical subjects in this post. However, I am going to start with several simple drawings from the children who came to my studio last year by way of introduction to / immersion in the multi-dimensional world where art meets botany.

The first work is by 7 year old Tom - perhaps worth clicking to enlarge this image - Tom was asked to draw something he liked and he jumped up and ran to the garden and came back with these camellias and nasturtium and a shell. I was intrigued to observe the careful layout of items that preoccupied him for a time then the extraordinary series of little texta images he created on the top right hand side of the page. He was totally engaged and only at the end did he look up, grow concerned and proceed to apologise for the smallness of the drawings, not that I was bothered by this. When it was time to go home he carefully carried the entire arrangement with drawing home as is here - his mother realising it was quite precious to him made sure it arrived home safely.
This entire procedure really fascinated me and it struck me that there was something quite powerful in this ritual that all of us could learn from. To see the deep absorbtion and the importance of composition, the artfulness in that alone was affecting.

Here in 12 year old Phoebe's work she collected leaves outside then observed and recorded the unique colours and features with care, painting each individually in a small notebook before the final invention - pasting them on a single stalk. On the one hand a simple process, but in another way, I saw her really take her time to appreciate the uniqueness of what she was looking at ... and I liked the whimsical and perhaps nonsensical twist at the end. It effectively draws attention to the uniqueness of each -  a curious way of completing her work.


Now I am taking you to the weblog Dear Ada (click on title to open) for a quick viewing of artists listed under botanical - garden in her categories. I would like to give the links to each individual artist here but that would take hours... so do visit the Dear Ada botanical link I have provided above and when you are free to trawl take a look at the links to the various artists. Apologies for not providing the details for wach artist here. The list starts with the extraordinarily talented Australian artist Fiona Hall and takes you to different parts of the globe, mediums and processes and styles of working. I hope you are intrigued and delighted as much as I was to survey the enormous variety in ways of seeing.


1. Fiona Hall



2. Ruth Van Haren Noman



3. Ellen Goldschmidt



4. Qiang Huang



5. Bill Beckley

6.  John Baird

7. Sonnenschein Eliezer

8. Neil Jones

9. David Hockney

10. Hugo Guinness

11. Not Known or identified

12.  Joyce Tennyson

13. Dam and Karislund Glas

14.  Maarten Kolk

15.  Linda Broadfoot

16. Malin Bjorklund

17. Scrapbook Floriegium

18. Daniel Williams



19.  Pamela Di Mauro

20.  Benjamin Long

21.  Dirk Mueggenburg



22. Gustav Oskar Andersson malme



23.  David Pearson

24. Karl Blossfeldt



25. Olga Seem



26.alain gerard clement



27.  Chris Hellman



28. Ric Heitzman



29. Becky Suss



30.  Alice Stevenson



31. Judy Pfaff



32. Julie Blyfield



33.  Allan Ballie



34. Nancy Blum



35. Anna Atkins



36.  Rudolf Blaschka



37. Camilla Penti



38. Jennifer Scott



39. John Buck



40.  Ernest Ciavano 



41.Ninagawa Mika

 I think you will agree this is an extraordinary range of works... and yet just the tip of the iceberg so to speak.  Thanks to Dear Ada for the peek into this fabulous array of wonderful artists and their work.