LINES IN DRIED NEW ZEALAND FLAX

Last week Laurie and I travelled west along the Victorian coast to the town of Warrnambool to see an exhibition by our artist friend Ben Fennessy. Ben and his wife Helen are long standing friends, since Helen and I worked together in the mid-1980's. Another connection with this area is that the nearby town of Koroit was where Laurie's mother spent her childhood. 

  

While in the area we visited Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve which incorporates the lake and islands within the caldera of a large inactive volcano. The site has been revegetated since earlier farming activity was discontinued. The planting has focussed on the re-introduction of native flora species that were present prior to the European farming. Native fauna have also been re-introduced into the reserve. The view above is from one of the high points on the north side of the crater rim overlooking the lake. In the further distance the Southern Ocean can be seen.

On some of the walls of the crater, layers of volcanic ash deposits are evidence of the past eruptions of the volcano. 

The most conspicuous of the re-introduced fauna are the Emus, Australia's largest birds. They tend to congregate around the car park and picnic area, being the least timid of the re-introduced species. I find their size and general inquisitive nature makes them rather intimidating creatures.

This relatively close-up photo shows the skin of the neck and head is a shiny pale blue. Like ostriches and cassowaries, emus are flightless birds.

          *         *         *         *         *

In the world of ikebana, I set my Melbourne students the exercise of making a Mazesashi arrangement a couple of weeks ago. This style requires the use of a variety of materials, five to seven being usual. The exercise is not as easy as it may sound because, among other things, asymmetry in the volume of materials is necessary.

Eugenia's ikebana is composed of the vertical arrangement of flowers with a spray of curving lines made with a Sedge. There are five kinds of flowers of different volumes and two kinds of leaves. The spaces she has created keeps the arrangement feeling light.

Jacqueline's ikebana includes two large Protea flowers and two stems of Leucadendron leaning to the left front. These materials are harmonised with finer stems of "Easter daisy" and Statice Limonium. Unfortunately, the photo was taken before water was added to the vessel and the kenzan is visible.

Marisha's arrangement included a variety of pink flowers which created harmony in the ikebana. She used a small amount of blue-grey Eucalyptus stems which provide a soft colour and shape contrast.

Aileen made an ikebana that is composed mostly of grassy materials gathered from the wayside. Two Morning Glory Ipomoea purpurea, flowers provide a focal mass. The lightness of the materials suggest a late summer / early autumn feeling. I am always enchanted by the beauty of these simple materials that are so easily overlooked and often dismissed as weeds.

My ikebana this week arose from a walk around the garden and my noting that the New Zealand Flax Phormium tenax, suffered quite a battering by the three very hot days we had some weeks ago. Almost all the older leaves had drooped badly and gone pale yellow from their middle to the tips. As I started to cut them away I noticed the beauty of their lines and some subtle marking in the broader sections that had not curled into straws.

The elegance of these lines really appealed to me and are the principle subject of this ikebana. I felt I could best show these lines by extending one across the front of this tall narrow vessel and deliberately have the line end by touching the surface of the niche. The angles created by the flat surfaces of the leaves draw attention to the texture and colour of those surfaces. A single floret and pair of leaves from a small Hydrangea H. macrophylla creates a colour focus.

The Japanese vessel is hexagonal in cross-section and has a tenmoku glaze.

Greetings from Christopher

14th April 2024
 

AN EVERYDAY OBJECT

Early last week, as I was hanging out the washing, a movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. It was a small bird scurrying around the bushes and ground cover. It was obviously eating small insects among the moist leaves, following some recent very welcome rain. 

I had seen a small family group of about seven of these birds about six weeks ago in the garden. They were completely new to me and I learnt that they are Buff-banded Rails. My photo above, is rather poor having been greatly enlarged.

This is a screen-shot taken from the Wikipedia article about them. They are quite beautifully marked birds and, at this stage in our garden, rather timid.

To ikebana.

At my Geelong class recently, Maree's exercise was, "...paying attention to the vase and the area where the ikebana is placed". In this exercise  the student is asked think about the materials extending beyond the vessel. The main focal point of the material is to the side rather than above the vase.

Maree used a large Tsubo vase. The material was a single large Strelitzia reginae leaf and a stem of Oriental lily Lilium with only one bud, the very showy open flowers having been removed. The stems have been aligned so that the bud is cradled by the leaf.

The exercise I set for the senior students was to "use two materials only" in a freestyle ikebana.

Ellie used some Bullrushes Typha orientalis, and some stems of a reed-like grass with a feathery inflorescence. She said that she chose the materials to suit the decoration on her unusual Japanese vessel.

Maureen used some autumn-coloured Manchurian Pear Ussuriensis and colour-matched Grevillea in a hand made bottle-shaped vase.

Helen made a freestanding small-scale abstract sculptural ikebana using only one kind of material. However, she changed the appearance of the elements and used them differently. The three uprights are the stems of a Yucca and the green elements are the detached leaves with their sharp ends cut off.

Technically, this was an example of the exercise: "Disassembling and re-arranging the materials".

My ikebana was made at a Sogetsu Branch workshop held three weeks ago. The theme was to make an ikebana using an "everyday object" and botanical materials in "Tones of the same colour".

I used a stainless steel Pasta machine, that I had borrowed from a friend with another ikebana purpose in mind. The Pasta machine is placed on its side as it looks slightly more sculptural and its usual function is not immediately apparent. My materials were a re-used Cycad leaf (see last week's posting), a variegated Aspidistra leaf and a head of Hydrangea that had turned a pale green.

Click here for more photos from the workshop.

Greetings from Christopher.
7th April 2024

END OF TERM ONE - IKEBANA AT HOME

  

Early after breakfast a week ago I took this photo at Rocky Point between the Torquay Surf Beach and Jan Juc Beach. The weather was a warm and the early morning light seemed to enrich the colours.

Speaking of which...

...the colour of this Camellia bud really caught my eye this morning. I was a little surprised to see this sign of the change of season. The extended period of unusually dry warm weather had deceived me into thinking that summer still prevailed.

The final term-one class for my U3A students in Torquay was held at my home. Creating ikebana in a domestic environment leads to a number of challenges. The ikebana needs to relate to its particular environment. The students brought their own materials. I had set them the exercise of making a freestyle ikebana using two materials only. To this I added a small challenge. After walking the students around the garden I asked them to add one element from the garden to their ikebana. Most of the students chose one of my vessels for their ikebana.

Lyn brought two heart-shaped leaves and two stems of Dutch Iris Iris x hollandica. Her third material from the garden is the tallest line, Strelitzia juncea.

Annie used Dietes leaves with Geranium leaves at the base.  Her third material is the Goldenrod Solidago canadensis arranged in her own vase that she was keen to try out.

John used Arum lily Zantedeschia aethiopica and Canna leaves to which he added a deep red Hydrangea as his third material.

Norma used a Cycad leaf and a flowering stem of Crepe Myrtle Largerstroemia. Her third material is the single line of Strelitzia juncea.

Coralie used an unidentified Western Australian Ragodia. Her second material is the "unconventional material" bronze-tinted wire coil. The third material is a small stem of Rosemary Salvia rosemarinus.

Marta used a branch of Maple Acer and stem of Duranta erecta. The third material is the single Strelitzia juncea stem.

My ikebana this week comes as the result of receiving a surprise "thank you" gift of flowers from a friend.

The bunch of flowers included these richly orange-coloured Asiatic lilies. I felt the size and colour of the flowers required a largish vase and that the accompanying line material be suitably strong. As I walked around the garden I noticed this drying leaf from the Strelitzia nicolai. Its tan colour seemed to be a good fit. The dried leaf was quite heavy so I have secured it onto a cross bar to stop it from rotating forward.

 The vase is by Mark Bell from Maine USA

Greetings from Christopher

31st March 2024
 

GOLDENROD

While visiting friends in Angelesea recently, I was delighted to be able to take this photo of a male Gang Gang Cockatoo at quite close range. It is one of the endearing characteristics of these cockatoos that they are relative unperturbed by humans being close and scrutinising them.

It was feeding on the seeds of an Australian native plant Melaleuca nesophila which is endemic to an area near Albany on the southern coast of Western Australia. This plant is a popular garden shrub because of its abundant purple globular flowers. Sadly many of them on this particular bush have been burnt by the recent three consecutive days of high temperatures and hot dry winds. 

*          *          *          *          *

At a recent class with my Geelong students...

... Maree had the exercise of "Taking into account the view from above". Obviously, this is the converse exercise of "Taking into account the view from below" which I posted a photo of last week. In this case Maree placed the materials in two black suibans, a long narrow trough and a more standard rectangular suiban. This photo was taken from directly above the ikebana which was placed on the floor. The abstract-looking geometric design was quite striking from this angle.

The senior students were given the exercise of making an ikebana using large leaves with a floral focus.

Tess used variegated New Zealand Flax Phormium leaves which she bent into a structural-looking design that had a strong sense of movement. The materials were set in a large mauve-tinted glass bowl which harmonised with the colour of the Pineapple lily Eucomis, placed at the back.

  

Maureen also used variegated New Zealand Flax leaves and a single Strelitzia leaf. Her flower was a large Sunflower Helianthus annuus "Teddy bear". She set her ikebana within a circle of thick bark giving it a rustic feel.

Christine used two Gymea Doryanthes leaves set in a very heavy, shiny metal vase. The floral focus was made using two stems of white Gladiolus. It was surprisingly difficult to stabilise the leaves in the centre of the vase's mouth, without them touching the side lip. 

Helen used three bold elements to make this strong ikebana: a big dark vase with a bold geometric design, two very broad Gymea leaves folded to make rectangles, and a large bunch of Sedum "Autumn Joy".

Ellie used a single, small Strelitzia Nicolai leaf and two stems of Leucadendron with maroon flowerheads. The Leucadendron stems pass through holes made in the Strelitzia leaf rib to support its elevated angle.

 

My ikebana this week uses the flower inflorescence of two stems of Goldenrod Solidago canadensis. My intention was to make the Goldenrod the principle element of the ikebana. I then added two Aspidistra elatior leaves. When I first placed the leaves they seemed to dominate the Goldenrod so I partially split them so that they hung in graceful curves. This created a better harmony of forms between the materials. Unfortunately the glowing yellow of the flowers becomes a little washed out in the photograph because of the dominance of green, including the Japanese ikebana vessel.

Greetings from Christopher

24th March 2024

 

AEONIUM ARBOREUM 'ATROPURPUREUM

At a recent class in Geelong ...

...Jo  made an ikebana "Using green materials only". Although the Sogetsu curriculum does not specifically state the number of materials to be used in the exercise, I think, as a generalisation, three should be the minimal number, (sometimes exceptions are appropriate). In this example Jo used Mirror Bush Coprosma repens, Agapanthus and a large Tree Philodendron Thaumatophyllum bipinnatifidum. 

   

Maree's exercise was "Taking into account the view from below". It is convenient that the class room has a high shelf that suited the cascading lines of this pink Amaranthus caudatus, above which is a pink Grevillea and a some Bamboo. In this exercise short materials, in particular, may need to be placed at a lower angle than when the vessel is at table level.

The exercise for the senior students was to make a "Basic Slanting Arrangement", with no other criteria specified - a revision of one of the basic forms in the Sogetsu curriculum.

Tess chose to use a tall cylinder as the vessel in which she set Australian native materials; Oldman Saltbush Atriplex nummularia and a pale yellow Grevillea.

Maureen used two species of Grevillea set in a pale blue suiban. The foreshortening in the photograph makes the flowers look larger than the reality and their line is rather lost.

Ellie also set her ikebana in a suiban. The principle material is Kangaroo paw with Billy Buttons in the  flower position on the right hand side.  The pale blue-grey material in the centre is a small stem of Acacia.

My ikebana this week comes from a chance finding. A neighbour was throwing out a large clump of Aeonium arboreum 'Atropurpureum'. I was immediately drawn to the thick curving lines of this material and the dramatic dark maroon-purple of the rosette of leaves. The heaviness of the stems and flower created a challenge because of the snaking curves and the weight of the material. I created a cross-bar fixture that was wired onto two upright bars which were impaled in a large kenzan. This meant that the cross-bar did not have to be wedged tightly against the wall of the vessel, which might have cracked. The materials both project forward of the vase, the smaller one is actually a little further forward of the larger rosette. I like the visual strength of these materials which contrasts with the pale glaze of the vessel. In making this ikebana I was reminded of the following advice when arranging fruiting branches. "If the fruit is heavy, it should look heavy". Therefore it is allowed to hang below the opening if a tall vessel is used. 

The vase is by the Victorian ceramicist Kaye Poulton.

Greetings from Christopher

17th March 2024

MASSED EXPRESSION

A couple of weeks ago I failed to include a photo of my student, Maree's ikebana. Her exercise was the Book 4 lesson using "Dried, bleached or coloured material". The exercise does not preclude the addition of fresh materials. However, they should be secondary to the dried materials. 

 

Maree chose some bark for the warm cinnamon colour of its inner surface, the outer surface being grey. She set the bark inside three large glass cylinders with crushed white stones in their base. This provided a mechanism for supporting the bark without the need for kenzans or other fixing mechanism. She added some Billy Buttons Craspedia canens which gave a bright yellow highlight to the ikebana. The large "rock" outside the left-hand cylinder is actually a piece of foam plastic that has become tan-coloured with age. At the critique I moved the three cylinders into this triangular configuration which gave depth to the work. It also made the ikebana able to be viewed from all around which was much more interesting.

  

The senior students at a recent class were given the exercise of making an ikebana using "summer flowers" in a suiban. In the context of the hot, dry summer conditions typical in the south of Australia, this can be quite a challenge.

Christine chose to use some bright red Nerine sariensis from her garden. She also decided to incorporate some additional "unconventional material" into her ikebana. It is white, plastic-coated wire, used for binding single pages into calendars or book manuals. The wire was unexpectedly heavy and had to be held up with some strong green stems. 

Maureen used the terminal inflorescences of Leucadendron for the flower component of her ikebana. The principal line was a large dried branch sporting clusters of dried Lichen. She placed the Leucadendron stems to complement the branch lines and create interesting spaces in the ikebana.

Tess has a garden with an abundance of summer flowers. Such an "embarrassment of riches" can be a challenge in the world of ikebana where it is often said that "less is more". The difficulty is in choosing what to leave out. Tess's ikebana included a single Rose, blue and pink Statice, Geranium, Sedum and Plumbago auriculata.

On one of our regular walking paths we pass a garden with this very large clump of Belladonna lily which has an especially rich colouring. The clump must be very old as the bulbs have pushed up above the ground surface forming a small mound. I am intrigued by the intensity of the pink flowers.

 

In our garden the Golden Rod Solidago altissima has started to flower more prolifically this year. It is confined in an old concrete laundry trough, the base of which I lined with garden-pool grade plastic. Thus I am able to keep the soil saturated, in spite of temperatures like today's 39C  (!).

This week's ikebana came about because a neighbour kindly offered me the seed head of some Artichoke Cynara cardunculus. A gift this ikebanist could not refuse. I have used three of the flowerheads, the largest to the left front and the other two partially hidden. Two flowerheads of the Golden rod cascade across the smallest of the Artichokes. Only partially seen at the back are some pale pink trumpets of our Belladonna lily.

The green galzed flower bowl is by Isabella Wang.

Greetings from Christopher

9th March 2024

BELLADONA LILIES and SEDUM

Yesterday was partially cloudy with a slightly chilly wind from the south when we had a walk in Iron Bark Basin, part of the Great Otway National Park.

The dense bush on the right of the path has an understory dominated by small Grass Trees Xanthorrhoea Australis. These Grass Trees all appeared during the natural regeneration after the 1983 bushfires. Hence they are much the same height and may eventually grow to over 3 metres tall. The left side of the path is bare because it has been slashed as a fire break.

Some sections of this path provide glimpses of the sea several hundred metres away.

It always reminds me of Arthur Streeton's painting "Ocean Blue, Lorne" brought into the  Geelong Art Gallery collection in 2011.

In my Melbourne class last week I set the exercise of creating an ikebana using 'Green Plant Materials", a subject from the Sogetsu extended curriculum. Green is a particularly pervasive colour in the plant world therefore, it is important to turn our attention to that fact.  The exercise encourages the ikebanist to discriminate between different greens and, in so doing, reveal them to the casual observer. 

Aileen used Gymea leaves for the main lines and then added a single Fatsia Japonica leaf and a small bunch of green berries. The vertical lines, together with the space created, provide the strong elements of the design; while the leaf and berries invite a closer look.

   

Jacqueline got busy changing the appearance of her stem of  Cordyline so that it didn't look like a small palm tree. She then added an Escheveria rosette and a small stem of Camelia leaves. 

Marisha also had a stem of Cordyline, variegated in this case. The manipulation of her leaves made such a bold design that only a small bunch of Dwarf Nandina could be added without weakening her design.

Eugenia used a single leaf of Sansevieria which she had manipulated to create a bold line. The colour and bold line matched closely the colour and strong lines in the vase. To this she added some fine green lines of Mistletoe Cactus Rhipsalis, and a small bunch of Clivia berries.

 

Marcia's ikebana incorporated Umbrella Grass Cyperus, Arum lily Zantedeshia aethiopica and Crab Apple Malus fruit. The black annular vase offset the different forms of the naturally arranged materials and the subtle variation in shades of green.

This week the Belladona lilies, originally from my parents garden, have finally flowered. Last year we were in New Zealand at this time and I missed the opportunity to use them in an ikebana. I was keen to use them in my ikebana because of the memories they recall for me.

  

a

 

I also wanted to use the Sedum Autumn Joy, (a Hylotelephium hybrid) because it provides a good colour harmony with the Belladonna lily.

I have arranged the two materials naturalistically closely placing the Belladonna stems to emphasise their vertical movement. Unfortunately, I did not photograph them as soon as I finished the ikebana; and in the warm room two more of the flowers opened. The consequence was that I missed the strength of the buds reaching upward. However, it reminds me that ikebana can be translated as "living flowers". The rich pink of the Sedum flowers and the green leaves make a strong mass at the base of the ikebana.

Greetings from Christopher
3rd March 2024