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