Blooming Art 2014 - Bunbury Regional Art Gallery, Western Australia

I was thrilled recently to be invited to be a Blooming Art Special Guest exhibitor at the floral art exhibition run annually by the Flower Designers Club of Bunbury in the beautiful Chapel Gallery at the Bunbury Regional Art Gallery.   I was invited by Blooming Art Coordinator, Eileen Wenn, who is a friend of mine from Spanish dance class, and who is also a world class floral art designer.

Special invited guest exhibitors select a painting from the City of Bunbury Art Collection, and then represent it through a floral display.  I have no floral art background or formal arts training, so felt very priviledged to be invited, as well as a little apprehensive and excited. 

The painting I chose which you can see below, is a painting by Alisa Small, called Up The Gorge to Tallering Peak.  I was attracted to this painting because we had just past through this area on our way south from the Pilbara.  I love the rich colours, textures and ruggedness of this ancient landscape and how the colours change with the light. Alisa has captured with her painting what I try to capture with my camera. 

 To keep reading and see more pics, please click on "read more" .....


You can see Alisa's painting and my interpretation below.

Eileen assisted me initially to choose some flowers, suggesting that the beautiful Scarlet Banksia, Banksia coccinea, which grows in woodland and heathlands through Cranbrook, Denmark, Albany and Esperance would be perfect, due to its red colouring, even though it is not a Pilbara flower. 

 I have seen the Scarlet Banksia in the wild, down around Hopetoun and the Fitzgerald River National Park on Western Australia's south coast. It really is a stunning plant and flower, growing 1 to 8 metres tall.  Here is a photo I took of it during our trip a couple of years ago. My daughter-in-law had a wildflower wedding bouquet including the Scarlet Banksia. 

 I also purchased some Protea. Although a South African native plant, they are grown quite commonly through our area, and are related to Australian banksias, grevilleas and waratahs. 
My friend Eileen, has just told me - What you used in your design is leucadendrons from the protea family. Leucs are the protea that have the nut in middle.
Thanks Eileen

Eileen loaned me a beautiful wooden dish about 60cm across to use as the basis of my piece. I already had a collection of nuts, seeds and rocks, and collected some other leaves, to use in my display, and had a little bit of a play around with the layout the weekend before.

Set up time was Wednesday evening, before the opening on Thursday afternoon. 
My thanks to Denise Gillies from Lyndendale Gallery for this pic of me with my completed piece at the opening. I was really pleased with my arrangement and I received some great feedback on my work, not only my friends, but also from professional floral artists. 

The flower you can see upper RH corner below here is the protea - or more correctly leucadendrons.  They last cut for a long time, open up as they mature and are beautiful in the dried state as well.
The stamens of the Scarlet Banksia uncurl as the flower matures. You can see it in closeup below.

I included a box brownie in my display as a connection to my photography.  And I even had some red dirt which was scraped out of the car after our recent return from the Pilbara.

The floral artworks were so creative - below you can see a few. I should have taken more photos. The display lower middle, created from white carnations was created by my friend, artist and also fellow Spanish dancer, Amanda Doust.

I really liked the central display called Violet's Washing Day created by the Flower Designers Club. The little sets of clothes were made from chicken-wire stuffed with dry sea-weed. I loved this little dress.

My Dad is very ill in hospital, and Blooming Art was the bright spot of my week. Afterwards, when the event closed on Sunday afternoon, I boxed up part of my display and took it to my Dad.  
ps - don't throw away those floral gift boxes and paper when you are given flowers - you never know when you might be able to reuse them!

I send my sincere thanks to Eileen Wenn for her support, encouragement and hugs, and the Flower Designers Club of Bunbury for this opportunity. If you go to their Facebook Link here you can see more pics of the wonderful displays from the exhibition  - Flower Designers Club of Bunbury
And some more pics on the ABC website - ABC.net
Thanks for stopping by. I value your comments and look forward to hearing from you. Have a wonderful week.

I am linking up to Mosaic Monday, Travel Photos Monday, Our World Tuesday, Wednesday Around the World at Communal Global, Travel Photo Thursday, and What's It Wednesday.  Please click on the links to see fabulous contributions from around the world - virtual touring at its best!

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