PINK AND BLUE

  

The Spring weather has been extremely variable lately. A week and a half ago, on a very warm and sunny morning, we were surprised to see...

...an Australian Pelican (Pelecanus conspicillatus) at the mouth of Spring Creek in Torquay.

These photos are a little blurry as they were taken with my phone camera and have been zoomed-in a great deal. Just as we were about to walk on, a group of pre-school children were being escorted by their teachers for an outing to the beach. What excitement this rather unusual spectacle created!

Several days later, on a chilly afternoon, our friends Heather and John took us for a walk through a section of the Anglesea Heath where they had come across a number of endemic native ground orchids. In preparation for our brief expedition I took a sheet of white A4 paper to use as background to photograph these very small flowers. Without a plain background my camera struggles to focus on such small subjects and chooses larger materials beyond them. 

Above is a Small spider orchid, Caladina pava.

Unfortunately the next two are not identified.

The next, below, is a Duck orchid, Caleana major.

This extraordinary flower is new to me. I was utterly amazed when John sent me the photo below, a day or two earlier.

When I looked-up this orchid on Wikipedia, I was surprised again to learn that it is not an endemic plant but is also found on the North Island of New Zealand.

Now to ikebana. 

At the beginning of this week the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana held an online event substituting for our October meeting. The subject set for our workshop, by Aileen Duke, was to "make an ikebana arrangement using 'unconventional (non-botanical) materials' with a focus on transparency". 

The starting point for my ikebana was some clear plastic tubing, which was coiled and somewhat stiff. 

  

I had to find a way to make it more interesting with a looser loop. Thus the two blue, bottle-shaped vases. Then I needed colour and remembered some plastic file covers I had in the home office. The cones, made from the file covers, allowed for a sense of lightness by standing the pink one on its point. I was pleased with the sense of movement generated by both of the bottles being off-centre from their bases. The tension between the bottles and the tubing held everything in position. I was fortunate to have a pot of Bougainvillea, in a closely matched pink, in flower. I enjoyed this exercise because it took me beyond my usual ikebana material choice and caused me to explore something new.

More images from the workshop can be seen through this link, Sogetsu Victoria October on-line workshop.

Greetings from Christopher

31st October 2021

TWO GOOD REASONS TO VISIT GEELONG

 

On Thursday we headed into the Geelong Art Gallery to see the exhibition of paintings by Frederick McCubbin. The exhibition celebrates the gallery's 125th year and features McCubbin's 1890 "A Bush Burial", an iconic painting, and the first major work to be purchased by the gallery. McCubbin was a member of the Heidelberg School of Australian artists who painted, en plein air, and are sometimes referred to the Australian Impressionists.

With some time to spare we then ventured to the Geelong Botanic Gardens where we had a picnic lunch.

At the entrance to the gardens, which were established in 1851, is a group of wonderful Queensland bottle trees, Brachychiton rupestris. To give a sense of scale, particularly of the diameter of the tree, I asked Laurie to take this photograph.

Also in the garden is another favourite tree of mine, a Ginko biloba that was planted in 1859.

Among the interesting characteristics of this tree are the slowly developing aerial roots. I have always thought it looks as though the bark is melting.

Here in close-up are three small leaves growing directly from the trunk.

Meanwhile, back in our garden, I recently discovered two plants that were hidden behind a largish Rosemary bush that grows outside the kitchen window.

This Geranium has actually self-seeded from our neighbour's garden and is struggling to survive under the Rosemary. As a result its branches are quite unusually contorted.

The other obscured plant is this clump of Arum lily, Zantedeschia aethiopica. I did know that this plant was there, however I was quite surprised at how large it has grown over the last year. I think the graceful lines in the lily make it an attractive and quite versatile subject for ikebana.

My first ikebana is the Geranium that I have set in a uniquely curved vessel by Graeme Wilkie. The weight of the vessel allowed me to position the single branch to one side to emphasise the mass of irregularly curving lines. I have added some additional flowers to the naturally growing infloresence nearest to the vessel.

My second ikebana features some of the Arum lilies. I have massed four flowers projecting forward from the vase so that their stems do not show. The second material, on the left side, is a stem of white Pandorea pandorana. The Pandorea flowers did not last long so I re-worked the arrangement.

I think this second version is more interesting because of the space I have created on the right-hand side of the vase opening. It gives the flowers and the single Acanthus leaf a sense of floating.

The vase was made by Mark Bell, of Maine USA.

Greetings from Christopher

24th October 2021

SPRING FLOWERS in a TALL VASE

   

Last weekend I presented a Zoom demonstration for the Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter. It was the first time we had used a live online format, which provided a challenge. The President, Julie Ireland, and Vice President, Nobuko Kobayashi, were in their respective homes in Melbourne and I was 100 kms away in Torquay. The event was to replace a workshop that could not be held due to the current Covid lockdown restrictions in Melbourne. Fortunately, I was able to use the room in which I normally hold my Torquay classes. The room has fairly good light and plain white walls with no background clutter. 

Because of the season I chose the theme of "Spring flowers in a tall (nageire) vase". When I set the topic four weeks ago, I felt inspired because the Red Valerian, Centranthus ruber, in the garden was just starting to flower and the Freesias were prolific. A month later the Freesias were finished!

However, the Red Valerian was taking over the annuals bed. For additional materials I had to go to the florist where I bought white Snapdragon, Antirrhinum, and pink Alstromeria.

For my first arrangement I had decided to follow the Sogetsu curriculum exercise of "Flowers only". This means that branch materials cannot be used. This was just an extra level of constraint that I had imposed on myself, not upon the other Chapter members (including members from five other Schools).

The pink of the Valerian led me to choose this cylindrical vase by Graeme Wilkie, which has a pink flush in its ash glaze. For the particular materials I had selected, I needed to use a cross-bar fixture. As the rim of this vase is thin I used the following technique to protect it from the risk of being cracked.

 

I have attached the cross-bars to a vertical fixture that is set into a kenzan to stabilise it at the base. This method means that the cross-bars do not exert any pressure on the side walls of the vase. 

This is the finished work as I had re-constructed it at home. So, it is a little different from the demonstrated work, with the Valerian being more upright in this case. The cross-bars allow the arranger to keep part of the vase mouth free of materials, which can be seen on the right-hand side. 

I had prepared a second ikebana using only Australian native materials from the garden, all of which are technically branch materials. At this time of year the Bottlebrushes, Melaleuca, in particular, are flowering abundantly. They are a very popular garden and street tree/shrubs, widely planted because of their hardiness.

In the garden we have several shrubs and three different colours. Above is Melauca viminalis.

This pink is a (hybrid?) variety of Melaleuca viminalis.

This pale lemon one is, appropriately, Melaleuca pallida.

Elsewhere in the garden is a large coastal tea tree, Leptospermum laevigatum. 

I also gathered some Black wattle, Acacia mearnsii, so that I had three different kinds of material for a feeling of spring abundance.

I selected this vase, also by Graeme Wilkie, for the earthy tones of its glaze to harmonise with the materials.

The vase is narrow, from the front to back, and has been irregularly pressed inward at the top. To secure the materials and keep the mouth of the vase uncluttered I created this cross-bar fixture with one long and three short bars. This enabled me to restrict the materials to a smaller section of the vase's mouth.

This blurry photograph was taken from the video of the demonstration. Unfortunately, the base of the vase is cropped. The materials have a strong sense of movement extending out of the vase.

Photos of the members' ikebana on this theme can be seen on the Ikebana International Melbourne Chapter Instagram account.

Greetings from Christopher

16th October 2021

RED-HOT POKER

While walking in the Iron Bark Basin a couple of days ago...

...who should we meet but a cousin of "Spike". I was tempted to label this photo "Masked man and Echidna". As you can see we are still observing Covid Safe protocols.

I recently visited my "Covid-singles-bubble" friend and former work colleague, Shirley, who is preparing to 'down size' into a smaller home. Shirley is a keen gardener, which is an interest we shared from the beginning of our acquaintance. The

 Forsythia that I photographed last week was a gift from her. As I was leaving her house Shirley kindly gave me a hand-made ceramic vase by one of the Teasdale potters. I have not been able to positively identify the potter other than to note the stamp on the base says "Lina". 

This is an ikebana I made for Shirley using her vase, the Forsythia and two Acanthus leaves. I was surprised at just how well the contrasting botanical elements worked in this simple ikebana.

A few weeks ago I noticed a Knipholia with a really interesting curve in its stem that I thought would make an interesting ikebana subject. The small plant had only one flowering stem and the leaves on this particular variety are rather weak. So, rather than pick the leaves I used some Coastal Sword Sedge, Lepidosperma gladiatum, leaves which are firmer and better lasting.

The stem has been placed against the side of the vase using a forked-branch cross-bar fixture, so that its line continues that of the vase's profile.

I placed three leaves on the underside of the stem so that the line was not interrupted, and looped them back into the vase. This looked a little unbalanced and a little too contrived for my taste so I added a single leaf on the righthand side with a curve in the opposite direction to correct the balance. 

This is the completed ikebana. I was pleased with the strength of the design and the harmony of the materials with the vase by Graeme Wilkie. I am reminded of two ikebana lessons that I had been taught in the past. Firstly, when repeating shapes, the loops in this case, they should be of different sizes to maintain the asymmetry of the design. Secondly, when using strappy leaves they will have more impact when placed so that the surface shows rather than their edge.

Greetings from Christopher

10th October 2021

 

AN ONLINE EXHIBITION

There was much excitement and rejoicing in the household this week with the return of "Spike", the Echidna, to the garden. Spike had not been seen since early in the year. 

Wednesday was especially warm and sunny. Undoubtedly the warm weather contributed to Spike's appearance.

Of course our garden is especially attractive as there is no grass to be mown. Only ground covers and a lot of leaf and bark mulch which is home to ants and many other small insects. This second photo was taken two days later. I surprised Spike who had been digging for ants where there is a nest below two of these rocks.

*          *          *          *          *

In September, the Victorian Branch of the Sogetsu School had planned to join Wa Ikebana Melbourne for an exhibition at the Abbotsford Convent. However, it became another Covid casualty and had to be cancelled. Undeterred, the organising committee decided to change presentation and move to an online exhibition. Many of the participants had already partially, or fully, prepared their work.

I had begun my preparation in late August when I noticed some branches on a "Manchurian Pear", Pyrus ussuriensis, that I predicted would be pruned this season. With permission, I cut two strong vertical branches that I thought would make a good framework and stored them in a bucket of water. 

Some weeks later when I began to prepare my main framework I noticed that a single, very small, flower had opened.

This is the structure I created by placing the two branches with their growing ends toward each other and interlocking the side branches. The size of the structure was suitable to use with one of my large vessels, a ceramic half-pillow, created by Graeme Wilkie.

I wanted to have it floating above the vessel. The length of the structure was too great for the width of my back-drop; so in this image it is angled away from the camera.

Here is the finished work. I have added a large mass of Golden Wattle, Acacia pycnantha, blossom, placing it within the cage of the framework. In 'real life' this rather sculptural ikebana worked; however I was not happy with the photograph. 

Frustrated but determined, I proceeded to "Plan B". Placing the structure in a large cylinder, also by Graeme Wilkie, worked better as a photograph because it is does not recede from the camera plane so much.

The online alternative exhibition (mentioned above) is called "From Melbourne" and can be viewed through this link.

Greetings from Christopher.

2nd October 2021