Phasmids and Plankton

Some sketches and quick watercolours completed at various Natural History Museums around Europe.

Vienna

Based in the heart of Europe I'm trying to remember to take advantage of the amazing museums (relatively) close by. After the residency, my good friend Laura and I managed to squeeze in a quick trip to Vienna before the opening of my second Solo Exhibition.

We visited the Wien museum to be inspired by the incredible drawings and sketches from Klimt's career. Reminded of just how important drawing everyday is, we pulled out our sketchbooks and began filling them with studies, jotting down ideas and concepts. A good exhibition is like food for the mind, I find myself nourished and brimming with ideas for future projects.

Then we spent an entire day at the unbelievably incredible Natural History Museum. With both of us showing a strong interest in biology and nature, we were simply blown away, and stayed for over 9 hours sketching in this brilliant museums. Minerals and crystals, strange insects and microscopic plankton, fossilized trilobites and amphibians, to species sadly only recently extinct, the pages of our sketchbooks filled with thin hasty lines, eager to capture as much as we could in our time there.

The final day saw us head to "rest" at the Schönbrunn palace gardens, hanging out in the beautiful Palm Greenhouse. Both the Schönbrunn greenhouse and the Albertina Palm-House reminded me of some sort of fantastical Victorian building, taken over by plants and lost in the jungle, rediscovered far in the future.

Filled with new ideas, we headed back to Hungary for my exhibition in the Nádasdy Castle.

More on that later!

A walk in the woods

Every morning I venture into the woods nearby. 

On less asthmatic days I run to stay fit and keep my lungs trained, on more asthmatic days (most days) I go for a long walk. On days when my mind is turbulent, the woods infuse me with calm and tranquility, and always fill me with wonder and inspiration.Sometimes I spot shy deer, sometimes a sly fox with his typical loping gait. Today I was surrounded by tiny brilliant blue butterflies that seemed to hover around me as I ran.

The woods have always been a great source of wonder for me - it isn't a mistake this blog is titled what it is!

The photograph of the full work is not the best. I can't wait to get nice scans / photographs of ALL my work once I return to Australia. I hate looking sloppy and un-professional!

The Botanist's Daughter

Bereft of a more poetic title, I imagine the girl to be the daughter of a botanist, spending time in the green-house... imagining instead she was in a tangled and untamed jungle, free and wild.

Last year I mentioned my determination to finish colouring all the pieces I had previously started. This piece is another small victory in that mammoth task. I think I have 7 left now.
Drawing comes much quicker to me than the colouring stage. I will often feel colouring a piece I am either fond of or fear to be complicated very daunting, and have been known to put off finishing those pieces for years.
I am happy to have finally finished this one - I drew it about a year and a half ago!!!

Oak and Blossom

With an awful tummy-bug I really should be in bed, sleeping, getting ready for a couple of days at work, an exhibition, and an imminent house relocation.


Instead, I wanted to finish this piece I started a few days ago. It is different from my other drawings because instead of using girls I know as the models, they were inspired by a pair of articulated porcelain dolls by artist Patricia Cabrera http://patitadolls.blogspot.com/



Ok. Off to bed now!