SOLIDAGO

Last weekend Laurie and I attended the first day of the Lorne Sculpture Biennale, which runs until Sunday 3rd April. If you are heading to the Surf Coast, the extra kilometres are worthwhile for this alternative beach based experience. On the beach there are sixteen sculptural installations that celebrate or commemorate some aspect of the history and environment of this beautiful location.

On this official website, clicking on the blue dots provides further information about the artists and their work.

We were fortunate that the day was still and warm with some early cloud cover that provided some protection from the sun's heat.

 

The first installation that caught my attention was this campsite representing the living circumstances of the approximately 3,000 returned servicemen from WW I who constructed the section of the Great Ocean Road that created the coastal link to the township of Lorne. 

These plinths symbolically present elements of cargo from wrecks of sailing ships that founded on this part of the Victorian coast. 

This surreal and playful-looking house-boat stands near the point of Lorne.

Adjacent to the Lorne Surf Life Saving Club is this playful work drawing on the form of historical private Beach Bathing Boxes.

Along the Boardwalk is a series of painted wooden sculptures representing activities of visitors to the beach.

I was quite surprised by the despondent/depressed/fatigued representation of this would-be surfer facing the water.

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In my Melbourne class this week...

...Jacqueline's exercise was an arrangement of a variety of materials (mazesashi). She chose to make her ikebana in a trough-shaped vessel. The line of the nearly vertical Gladiolus was the most dominant and led to the creating of interesting spaces between the two groups of materials.

The topic I set the senior students was: Using naturally dried materials as your principal subject, add some fresh material to give it “life”.

Eugenia's principal subject was a dried Dracena leaf with a beautiful curl. She arranged it floating above a unique Bizen pottery vessel and added a mass of richly-toned Statice.

The class members and I were delighted to welcome back Helen N from a prolonged absence. A single large dried lotus leaf has been given a zing by the addition of two camellia leaves.

Meanwhile in the garden at Torquay...

... to my delight the Haemanthus coccineus bulbs have produced multiple flowers for the first time. They look quite dramatic against the greyed mulch.

  

The flowers are amazing for the intensity of colour.
 

I am also delighted by the best flowering yet in our garden of the Goldenrod, Solidago nemoralis (I think in this instance). It has definitely responded to the wet spring and sporadic rain during summer.

This crop is over a metre high because I have grown it in an old cement laundry tub lined with plastic. It has also received copious amounts of water. My Canadian ikebana friend, Leonora, insists it is a weed. But then so are many other beautiful wild-growing flowers. Unfortunately, I left making my ikebana a little late and the material is past its peak. It was also rain damaged by a recent shower and I had to remove some browned parts.

 

I wanted to use the Goldenrod as a mass but realised that the long stems provided the opportunity to contrast the mass with a strong line. The mass sits on the side of the vessel showing a large area of the water's surface. At the top of the line the flowers are the freshest, having opened more recently. The shallow bowl is by the Victorian ceramic artist, Phil Elson.

Greetings from Christopher

20th March 2022.