RINGING THE CHANGES

Last week I commented that if we get some more rain the creek at Torquay will wash through the sand bar. 

Well that has not happened yet. Instead the waves at high tide were washing over the sand bar into the creek. That combined with the slow flow from up-stream has raised the level of the creek a little further.

The water surface was exceptionally still when I managed to take this photo of a cumulus cloud and its reflection in the late afternoon.

In the garden the first of the Cootamundra Wattle, Acacia Baileyana, blossom has started to open. I thought this would be a good material to use with the massed ikebana of curving lines that I included on last week's post.

This is how it looked last week.

For my first re-working of this ikebana I have added two loose curving lines. This 'opens up' the ikebana, allowing it to 'breathe' and creates a different feeling.

 

I then added a mass of Cootamundra blossom, creating a focal point. In Sogetsu terms this mass is called the hikae, which I have seen translated as 'achieving balance'. The hikae mass balances the movement of the asymmetrically placed principal lines.

The Costal Sword Sedge leaves, which are the main material of this ikebana, not only last well but also change. Over time the leaves develop autumnal colouring in the form of orangey stripes that contrast beautiful with their rich green. This colouring started to occur in some of the leaves in the five days since I did the first re-working with the Cootamundra Wattle.

Today I have changed the position of the kenzan so that the coloured leaves show better and have added some Dwarf Nandina Domestica, as well as a single upward curving line.

Greetings from Christopher

27th June 2020

LEAVES ONLY AT THE WINTER SOLSTICE

   

During this time of Covid-19 restrictions Laurie and I have developed a pattern of a long daily walk, with the principal destination being a cafe where we have been able to buy a cup of coffee to take away. The route of our walk varies according to the weather, or just our whim.

Yesterday we crossed the boardwalk at the mouth of Spring Creek and noticed that the sand bar is only a few centimetres above the creek surface. In the photo above it is the thin brown line that separates the creek surface from the sea in the background. If we have more rain the sand bar will be breached and the creek will flow into the sea.

This view shows the board walk along the bank of the creek. In the distance it sweeps back across the full width of the creek. 

In the last week our destination cafe has been allowed to have a small number of customers inside, after 'signing in' and observing distancing protocols. It is so pleasant to be able to sit down and to use ceramic cups again.

I laughed out loud with delight when the coffee arrived with our names written in the decorated froth on the coffee.

And now to ikebana and, first, some of my students' work.

Eugenia's exercise is an arrangement that, "incorporates Australian native material and exotic materials". I set this challenge to my students because it can be quite difficult for materials to work together if they are from very different climates. In this ikebana the line on the left is the central rib of a Monstera Deliciosa  leaf which is native to Mexico and central America. The other materials are a variety of Kangaroo paw Angiozanthos and Acacia aphylla.

 

Marcia's exercise was to first create a freestanding 'sculpture' with some dry branches, for which she chose corky elm.

Then in a second step she has arranged that material in a vase with some fresh materials. In this case some white camellia.

The winter solstice has arrived and tonight will be the longest this year. With fewer flowers around, for some time I have been thinking to use some Costal Sword Sedge, Lepidosperma gladiatum to make an ikebana arrangement.

 

This is one of my favourite local materials. The leaves are long, tough and can be manipulated into beautiful curves. As they age they often colour into beautiful shades of orange before turning grey.

This is a flowerhead, which grows on a long stiff stalk that looks like a slightly thicker leaf.

I have arranged the leaves in a shallow ceramic bowl by Phil Elson. The asymmetric mass is set in a kenzan that is placed well to the left in the bowl. This placement creates a space where the water surface can be seen on the righthand side of the bowl. For a colour contrast I have added the surviving Hydrangea leaves from last week's ikebana. As this ikebana will last for at least a couple of weeks I am looking forward to re-working it for next weeks post.

Greetings from Christopher

21st June 2020

WHEN FLOWERS ARE NOT NEEDED

  

On the Victorian 'surfcoast' there are a lot of creative people, which has led our local government to promote an 'arts trail' for the last few years. In the time of physical distancing and our being encouraged to avoid communal gatherings some people have been creative, using strategies that remind me of guerrilla gardeners in suburban settings.

I was delighted to see this 'rainbow' of butterflies that appeared overnight on the fence of the RACV Torquay Resort, which includes the former Torquay Golf Links. I was impressed by the careful graduation of the colour transitions and the variation in the size of the butterflies. 

More startling was this ephemeral sand sculpture that appeared on the beach last Tuesday morning. This photo shows about 30 % of its extent. (I had gone down to the beach, knowing that it was low tide, to take a photo for my brother.) The flowing patterns are mostly abstract. However, I noticed that one was in the form of a whale's tail fluke. These patterns are the work of the Sand Whisperers, a local couple whose ephemeral creations are also to be found through the blue link and elsewhere on the internet. Of course these art forms are very appealing to me as a practitioner of ikebana.

This photo from a different angle gives a better sense of the extent of the sculpture.

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In the meantime, my students have continued to create ikebana at home and send me their photos.

This ikebana by Marcia was made some weeks ago. She has arranged Dancing Lady orchid and purple Dalia, creating a work of 'Colours in Contrast'.  

Eugenia created this simple ikebana responding the the unusual form of her Bizen vase with the twisting line of a succulent.

 

Ellie created a vertical ikebana two Peonies with three hydrangea leaves in a traditional ikebana vase.

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In the garden this week my task was to prune the hydrangeas. They were rather battered by the three 40C+ days we had in January and February. 

I took this photo on the 18th January before the first really hot day.

Here is the same plant after pruning. As you can see I have saved one especially tall straight stem as it is particularly thick and it raises the height of the plant above the retaining wall where it sits. The hydrangea leaves had started to colour beautifully and in a different way, as beautiful as the first flowers of six months earlier. Ideal material for ikebana. 

This is my single-material ikebana using leaves and stems but no flowers. The line to the left helps emphasise the space in the arrangement and the curving leaves also draw the eye back into the work. What is not apparent is the strong forward movement.

This side view shows that the leaf mass is composed of many stems carefully placed to make the most of the colour of the leaves. Also that the single line in fact projects well forward.

Here is the ikebana in the niche in the living room, where it caught the early morning sunlight. The bowl is by Graeme Wilkie of Qdos Gallery in Lorne.

Greetings from Christopher

14th June 2020.

WINTER IKEBANA

Dear Reader,

                      If you are an automatic email recipient of this blog, you will have received a posting from last December. This mystery is probably a result of the "Blogger" system changing its software last week. I hope we do not have any further un-planned reappearances of past postings. 

If you are new to this blog and would like to receive posts automatically, you can add your email in the box on the righthand side of the page. I do not have access to your email address, even if you make a comment on the blog. If you want to contact me directly my email address is: roadsideikebana@bigpond.com 

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When a cold front comes in from the Southern Ocean we often see a large well-spaced swell, much loved by the surfers. The wide expanse of white water in the photo below gives an indication of the power of the waves.

In the garden, winter changes are beginning to appear. I have been watching the development of blossom buds on the Cootamundra Wattle, Acacia Baileyana, over the last few weeks.

 

The buds are beginning to enlarge and have become a lime green; another few weeks before they become soft masses of yellow gold. 

By the front steps the Swan River Pea, now called Gastrolobium celsianum, from Western Australia has suddenly developed masses of these little red beaks. This is a very successful spreading 'ground cover' up to a metre high that is doing well in shade and sun.

I am finally having some success with the winter -flowering Jasmine, Jasminum polyanthum, which I have just learnt from Wikipedia, 'can be regarded as invasive (in some places) in Australia'.

  

My big surprise a couple of days ago was this bud of Japanese flowering quince, Chaenomeles. The shrub still has quite a number of leaves so I had not expected the buds just yet. 

These plants are all part of the winter garden pleasures in this part of the world; which my students have been continuing to enjoy in the absence of classes, three of whom have sent me the photos below.

Tess created an autumn arrangement using branches of Cotoneaster with leaves that had coloured beautifully.

Eugenia added some brightly coloured strips of card to this arrangement of Asparagus fern in a contemporary black ikebana vessel.

Marcia sent me this photograph in early May. She arranged Japanese anenome (A.hupehensis) in an iron Japanese tea pot; the exercise theme being 'Using an every-day object as the vessel'.

When I was in Melbourne yesterday I took the opportunity to gather some small bare branches of Elm shoots that have a corky appearance in their early growth. I was particularly wanting to make an ikebana that expressed the feeling of winter. 

Because the branches are dry material they do not need to be arranged inside the vase. I have used three short branching stems balanced across the top of the vase and added a single white Camellia. There is also a small bud to the right of the flower that may not be easy to see in the photo. The vase is by the late Japanese ceramic artist Shigeo Shiga, who came to Australia in 1966. More information about Shigeo Shiga is at this link: Australian Potters Marks.

Greetings from Christopher

7th June 2020

 

IKEBANA INCORPORATING FRUIT

During the Covid-19 'stay at home' requirements, some of my students have been sending me photographs of their ikebana which they have created at home. It is gratifying that they are persisting with their practice, and also to see the subtle differences when the ikebana is made for a specific environment. 

Marisha has made her ikebana on the theme of creating a surface using leaves.

Eugenia has made this ikebana using two Banksia flowers on a single stem, which she found "...growing by the roadside, on the way home ...". She also said, "...I love how the two flowers are connected." Her Bizen vase is by Hiroshi Toyofuku.

Marcia has created an autumn ikebana using Crepe Myrtle and a dried palm inflorescence in a tall bamboo vessel.

             

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We are now two days away from the official beginning of winter in the southern hemisphere and are expecting a cold change on Monday. Today has been warm, 18 degrees Celsius, but windy. When walking around the garden I have noticed that leaves of some exotic plants have coloured beautifully.

This is the ornamental grape over the terrace, which contrasts well with the green of the Lorraine Lee rose.

The apricot has been ravaged by possums and only the leaves on the lower branches remain. They have started to yellow before carpeting the ground below.

Last year I repotted this Ficus elastica into a much larger pot. Two days ago I noticed some of the leaves had started to turn a bright yellow. I am not sure whether this is a result of neglect on my part or just natural ageing.

Given the late autumn season I thought they would make a good ikebana subject. The leaves are quite large and leathery in texture. I was thinking about how to arrange them, including as a freestanding sculptural form, but then decided to arrange them so that their edges would be only partially visible above the lip of the vessel. However, none of my ceramic vessels seemed to be suitable as the leaves were so wide and I was reluctant to cut them. Then I came across a glass trough and I realised that it would allow my original idea of the more or less parallel edges showing. Also I could show the whole surface of the leaves.

This is my first version, a one material ikebana. A couple of the leaf edges are showing above the lip of the vessel but also showing the surfaces which are visible within the vessel. The subtle colour variation creates an ikebana focussing on tonal variation.

   

Here is the final result of my experiment with these leaves. I have reduced the number of leaves so that the space at the bottom of the vessel shows and then introduced a new colour and form with some ripe figs which sit between the leaves.

Greetings from Christopher

30th May 2020

LINES AT THE BASE (Mk II)

 

Wintry weather brought some fine rain yesterday.  

I could not resist photographing this spider's web on the apricot tree. Earlier, I had gone into the garden to pick some ripening figs before the marauding possums got at them. While I was busily picking the figs I heard some fluttering around my head and was startled to find a parrot trying to send me away.

When I looked up there were six female King parrots parrots in the tree nibbling at the fruit. This photo shows four of them having retreated to the neighbour's verandah before they harassed me again. 

Their beautiful green blended well with the fig leaves (The poor quality photo was taken with a mobile phone on zoom). 

Later, as we took our daily walk, a crunching noise alerted us to this Gang Gang eating seeds from the gum nuts in a Eucalyptus over-hanging the foot path. The bright red feathers indicate that it is a male bird.

Next are some photos of 'ikebana at home' made by some of my students. The 'themes' are of their own choosing.

In a semi-circular suiban, Eugenia created an abstract design using a dried branch, two Billy Buttons, Craspedia, and some American Beauty Berry, Callicarpa americana. 

Margaret created a massed ikebana arrangement of 'green materials only', using two monstera leaves and three green chrysanthemums. 

Robyn and Helen N. jointly made this ikebana of wandering curving lines using eucalyptus bark. The vessel is bamboo bound with iron bands.

Two weeks ago I decided to make an ikebana using some spent flower stems of agapanthus. At that time there were some that had long stems and were still a lovely fresh green. This material is ideal for the Sogetsu curriculum exercise of 'emphasising lines at the base'. The idea is that the lines arising from the vessel should be 'clean' and not softened by the placement of flowers or foliage at the lip of the vessel. The focal point of the ikebana should be high and this will result in a strong appearance. 

The vessel I decided to use was this one by the Canadian ceramic artist Leta Cormier. It is 22cm tall and sufficiently robust for a tall ikebana. Although I have used two kenzans, the length of the stems required a cross-bar to stop the tallest from falling against the left-hand side of of the vessel.

In this instance I have used a bamboo skewer that I pierced through two of the stems to hold them in the desired position.

This is the finished ikebana. I have taken care that the lines arise cleanly from the vessel and none of them are touching the sides. To create a focal point high in the arrangement I have added four bright yellow-orange dried agapanthus flower heads. None of the lines have been allowed to cross another, so the spaces between the stems are emphasised.

Greetings from Christopher
24th May 2020