FROM SOUTH AUSTRALIA

This week I am writing from Adelaide in South Australia where on Saturday I presented workshops to the local Sogetsu Branch. Laurie and I decided to take the opportunity to drive to South Australia and have a short holiday break, being our first time to leave Victoria since July 2019.

This is the very flat landscape of the Coorong, a lake and lagoon system south east of the mouth of the Murray River.

The area is especially significant for the Pelican rookeries at Jack Point in the Coorong, which are the largest breeding rookeries of the Australian Pelican in the country.

I could not help but notice these bright pink and green plants growing in the sand. I thought they looked like Euphorbia...

...and this was confirmed when I consulted Wikipedia. Commonly known as Sea spurge, Euphorbia paralias (originally from the Mediterranean region) has become naturalised in parts of Australia. I am guessing that the highly saline soil (sand), with lots of calcium from the sea shell grit, has caused the intense pink in the older leaves.

This dramatically curved trunk of a dead tree immediately caught the attention of my ikebana eyes. When most of the plants were low mounded bushes, it seemed to link the sky, sea and earth.

In Adelaide we visited the Adelaide Botanic Gardens for the first time since 2004. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the giant Amazonian water lily, Victoria amazonica, had been given a new home: a very modern, climate-controlled glass-house. 

 

It was wonderful to see the quite breath-taking, gigantic leaves, up to I.6 metres in diameter, floating in their re-furbished pond.

Even more exciting was to see an open flower floating on the water's surface, a first-time experience for me. I thought the large flower looked voluptuous and extravagant in its beauty. 

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A couple of weeks ago at my Geelong class where the students are at different stages in their ikebana journeys, I took the photographs below, of their work.

 

Maree was finishing the early part of the curriculum and had the exercise of making a single arrangement while using two suibans as the vessels. Each of the two integrated arrangements are one of the 'basic' exercises from the beginning of the curriculum. It was an interesting discovery that the Pampas Grass, Cotraderia selloana, flowerhead could be cut into short sections that worked well as the Jushi (filling material).

The exercise Jo had was a revision of technique; in this case using a vertical fixture to secure the branch material in a tall vessel.

Tess made an arrangement of Miniature Ikebana, in which elements of botanical materials are set in very small vessels. The unusual items among her vessels were a box, a stone with a scooped depression and a large cowrie shell. 

I set the senior students the exercise of making "Ikebana Without a Vessel".

Christine decided to use two branches of Nandina which she inverted on the table. Doing so highlighted the structure of the leaf branches. A lot of pruning was need to make the lines clear. Achieving stability was difficult and was managed with only a single piece of thick wire that passed through the longer stem and then inside the smaller stem of the second branch, which is on the left.

Maureen made a structure with some lichen encrusted branches and created a mass with blue-grey succulent leaves. She added a bright pink focal point with a sprayed dry agapanthus flowerhead.

 

Ellie made a sculptural form using coloured wire mesh. To this she added two dried lotus stems and a single, red-coloured dried, lotus seed-head.

Greetings from Christopher

28th March 2021

VALE PHILIP KEON

At the beginning of the month I attended a class with my teacher Elizabeth Angell. She had set the theme of making an arrangement using two glass vases - a really good subject for the late summer. I was interested in the idea of placing most of the materials under the water surface and controlling the space so that well defined areas would be free of the materials.

I have used two matching, narrow, rectangular glass vases with the front one overlapping about a third of the one behind. One long leaf of a tall Dracena is placed in each vase. On the right side, flower buds from an Ivy are held in a triangular space on the right hand side of the vase. On the left, I tried to hold down the materials, Ivy flower buds and Cane-stemmed begonia, flowers. As you can see, the flowers started to float once I added water to the vase.

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On Thursday last week Philip Keon, a member of the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School, died after a protracted illness. Philip was one of five members of the class in which I started studying Sogetsu Ikebana, with our teacher Carlyne Patterson. All five members of that class completed the basic Sogetsu curriculum. Philip had a very distinctive sculptural style and was not afraid to use 'unconventional' (man-made) materials. He was an active member of the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School, as well as Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter (No. 29). He represented the Sogetsu Branch at the Melbourne International Flower and Garden show and participated in annual exhibitions of both organisations. Below are two examples of his work.

 

This work was Philip's exhibit in the 2015 Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter exhibition.

This striking work was his contribution in the Sogetsu School of Ikebana Victorian Branch's most recent exhibition, which was in 2019. At the bottom of the metal and plastic 'found object' assemblage are five irregularly-placed pomegranates.

Philip also expressed his creative talents through interior design, millinery and jewellery making.

In this 2004 group photo at the Qdos Gallery in Lorne. Philip is the second from the left. The other members of our class are from the right, teacher Carlyne Patterson, me, Annette Mackintosh, Christine Theodorou and Sara Forsyth. The other two people are the ceramic artists Graeme Wilkie, owner of the gallery, and Ana Maria Hernandez y Jensen.

Vale Philip.

Christopher

20th March 2021

 

IN MEMORIAM

Ten years ago on the 11th March 2011 tragedy struck Japan in the form of a huge earthquake and terrible tsunami in the Tohoku region. Three weeks later I was to take up a three month scholarship at the Sogetsu School of Ikebana Head Quarters in Tokyo. At the time, in the first entry of my internet journal, I wrote: "...Even at this distance, in Australia, we feel a deep sadness for those lives that are lost and those that have been irrevocably changed by the event."

The impact of that event continues to this day.

I dedicate this simple ikebana of Hydrangea to the memory of those who died and those who continue to suffer.

Christopher

14th March 2021

RED LEAVES FROM THE GARDEN

   

Up until today the late summer and early autumn has been quite dry, but fortunately without ferocious heat. 

 

This was how the Front Beach at Torquay looked last weekend on the 7th day of Autumn. Very much a summer scene.

 

The next beach, the Torquay Surf Beach, was also quite busy with a lot of people enjoying the water and warm sunshine.

 

A few days later I was a little surprised to see this large group of people in kayaks on Spring Creek, which has its outlet on the Surf Beach. After the lock-downs of last year, many people are taking the opportunity to engage in outdoor activities while the weather is suitable. The trees overhanging the water are Moonahs, Melaleuca Lanceolata. On the right bank you can see that the branches have interesting irregular lines that make excellent material for larger scale ikebana sculptural work, but not today.

In the Torquay class I had set my the students the exercise of making an ikebana that incorporated some 'drift wood'. I like this exercise because of the textural contrast between the dried wood and the fresh materials. It also is an opportunity to show students that dried wood does not need to be placed in water and that it is a bad idea to try to insert dried wood into a kenzan. This is because the thick, tough wood is likely to bend the pins of the kenzan.

 

Marta used a very thick piece of wood that was from the base of a strong stem. She balanced it across the width of a deep, scoop-sided, ceramic bowl, creating a space underneath. 

Two stems of Common Reed, Phragmites australis, with a small-leaved vine attached at the base, create a contrast with the mass of the wood. 

 

Róża placed her driftwood across a copper suiban and used dried Hydrangea and grass seed-heads as contrasting material which had subtle coppery tones that complemented the wood and the bowl.

 

Marion placed her long piece of dried wood across a white suiban. The large space created was kept clear showing the water surface and her fresh material was contained by the line of the branch.

 

In the garden this week autumn colours have become apparent. The soft pinks I showed last week have been overtaken by the richer tones of ...

 

...this ornamental grape vine, vitis coignetiae, which was a striking bright red against the green of the apricot tree. Some of the Hydrangeas are also beginning to develop autumn colours. 

 

This week's ikebana features the ornamental grapevine. 

I have arranged it as a long line reaching forward and to the 

left. As a foil to its deep red I have added a small mass of 

acacia baileyana leaves and some stems of wild Rapeseed, 

Brassica napus, which has small yellow flowers. The 

bottle-shaped vessel is by the Castlemaine ceramic artist 

Barry Singleton.

Greetings from Christopher

13th March 2021

PINK FLOWERS FROM THE GARDEN

Last week I set my Melbourne students the same exercise I had given two weeks ago to my Geelong students, which was "Unexpected Ikebana".

Marcia created a simple and bold sculptural work by fixing two Pomegranate, Punica granatum, fruit on a coloured bamboo skewer. The unique metal form had been made by her husband to Marcia's design.

Margaret chose Cork bark, some Billy Buttons, Craspedia, a reed and some wire netting as her materials. Within a column of the wire netting she has set the bark with two gaps and created a focal point with the Billy Buttons.

Eugenia has created a bold, strongly geometric sculpture using a ceramic bowl, a black plastic annulus and two plastic binders. The only colour is the bright red of two Cherry tomatoes.

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As I walked around the garden recently I particularly noticed the pink flowers that bloom at this time of year, at least in this garden.

I was blessed with the gift of this rich pink Sedum from one of my students a few years ago. 

This particular Hydrangea came from the garden of my ikebana colleague of the Ohara School, Rosemary, and her husband David.

These Belladonna lilies, Amaryllis belladonna, came from the garden of a neighbour, Ron. They are darker and taller than those from my parents garden.

Noticing these flowers put me in mind of the Sogetsu curriculum exercise of setting flowers in a range of 'tones of the one colour' for my ikebana this week.

I have arranged the mass of flowers on the left side of this contemporary style vessel which has two openings. In this exercise it is not necessary to arrange the materials as a mass. However, as I have arranged this ikebana it is worth noting that it also conforms to a second curriculum exercise: "An Arrangement of Line and Mass". 

Greetings from Christopher

7th March 2021