My affinity with nature developed early with a love of gardens and the beauty of plants through their seasonal transitions. Upon retirement and with no known artistic ability, I enrolled in a botanical art class conducted by Lauren Black, one of Australia’s leading botanical artists, to learn to capture the intrinsic beauty of the plants using watercolour as the medium.
Two watercolours of plants from the Tasmanian Government House Garden, part of the Floral Splendour exhibition.
- Crab Apple – Malus sylvestris
- Rambling rose ‘Lady Bennett’s tose’
Four watercolours of plants found in the Woodbank Gardens (Lower Longley, Tasmania), part of the exhibition “Gillanders Gondwana“.
- Telopea truncata – Tasmanian waratah (Western form)
- Embothrium coccineum – Chilean firetree
- Philesia magellanica – Chilean Bellflower
- Mutisia ilicifolia – Chilean Climbing Gazania
Discovering the Flora of Wind Song: Botanical Art and Science
at the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) – Dec 4, 2020 – Feb 28 – 2021.
- Rinodina teniswoodiorum – Lichen
- Olearia phlogopappa – Dusty daisy bush
- Juncus pallidus – Great soft-rush pale rush. Watercolour by Jean Henley
Watercolours displayed in various exhibitions
Frederick Mackie Exhibition, Narryna Museum, Hobart, Sept 2019 – Feb 2020.
- Hawthorn – Crataegus sp.
- Old China Rose. Derived from Rosa chinensis.
- Silver Banksia – Banksia marginata.
Royal Tasmanian Botanical Garden Exhibition – September 2018
- Norfolk Island Pine – Araucaria heterophylla.
- Wollemi Pine branch – Wollemia nobilis
- Dawn Redwood – Metasequoia glyptostroboides
- Pineapple – Ananas comosus
Knopwood’s Kitchen Garden Exhibition 2015/2016
- Wild Strawberry – Fragaria vesca
- Broad bean – Vicia faba
- The Reverend Robert Knopwood – A study
- Almond – Prunus dulcis.
Port Arthur – An Exotic Garden: Unlocking the Botanical Journey Part 1
- Scotch Thistle – Onopordum acanthium.
- Lady Penzance Sweet Briar – Rosa rubiginosa, with a Territorial Police badge
- Himlayan honeysuckle – L. formosa; Rosy cestrum – C. purpureum; English ivy – H. helix.
Other Watercolours
- Dwarf Iris sp.
- Cestrum purpureum syn C. elegans
- Rosa sp. ‘Sympathie’
- Hellebore sp.
- Hydrangea sp,