Roslyn Glow

Roslyn Glow -- botanic artist

Rhodanthe moschata

When I retired I started as a student of botanical illustration with Mali (Moir).

This was about six years ago.  Until then, I had not had any training in botany, history or art, although I had looked at botanical art for many years.

When I heard that a fellow student had suggested to Mali that we celebrate 150 years since Burke and Wills’ expedition by collecting and painting some of the same plants that Hermann Beckler collected, I was inspired.  I thought it was such an imaginative idea, that I wanted to be involved.  I came up on the first trip, in 2010.   We really had little idea about the problems we would face in identifying plants, and were very fortunate that two of the artists with us were also botanists, and two more were experienced field naturalists. We were able to make some progress, and we had a wonderful time. 

I was unable to come the next year, but joined the group again in 2012. Once more it was a great experience, and I learned a lot.  By then I had read a good deal about Beckler and about the Burke and Wills expedition, and was thoroughly entranced by the way the project combines art, botany and history.  

Being based in a remote location and sharing our life together also adds the dimensions of geography, sociology and group dynamics.  A rich experience indeed.

This year, although it should be harder, because the most common plants have already been selected and painted, our task has been made easier by the presence of our Honorary Botanist. Andrew Denham. His presence has greatly eased the difficulties of finding and identifying relevant plants.

My chosen plant is Rhodanthe moschata, the musk sunray.  This is a small, annual, scented herb with gold flowers.  I particularly wanted to paint a colourful plant.  What I didn’t realize is the fact that the ‘flowers’ are in fact flower heads, each consisting of about twelve florets, each of which contains two or three flowers.  The flowers themselves are very small.

Rhodanthe moschata
(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2013)

This plant was first described by Allan Cunningham, who was sent by Sir Joseph Banks, to Australia, to collect plants.   He made many exploration trips in Australia and New Zealand, and was appointed Royal Botanist to the Colony of NSW, later becoming the Superintendent of the Botanical Gardens, Sydney, now the Royal Botanic Gardens.  This is yet another link for our project, as we are sending our collected and pressed specimens to both the State Herbarium of Victoria, where Beckler’s collection is held, and the NSW Herbarium. 

Close up of Rhodanthe moschata. (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2013)

Because the flowers are so small I had to use a microscope to understand the flower structure.  This was a first for me, but a great learning experience.  It was a wonderful opportunity for me to work so closely with a botanist. 

(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2013)

I will paint the whole plant, including the root, at twice the natural size, and the details of flower structure at ten times the natural size.  I will use water colour.

Drawings from my microscopic work. (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson 2013)

The Beckler project is a lovely initiative.  I particularly enjoy the chance to be out in the arid country with a serious purpose, the many links to relevant studies and institutions, and the fellowship of other artists.  Each participant is self-funded.  We are all there because we want to be there, not because someone told us to go.

This enhances the experience. 

  

Roslyn Glow 

http://becklersbotanical.blogspot.com.au/2013/09/where-did-becklers-botanical-bounty.html

Shu-Yen Ee

Shu-Yen Ee -- Botanic artist

Atriplex limbata (Saltbush)

Why did you get involved with the Beckler Project ?

I became involved in the Project in a roundabout way. I must admit the lure of a trip/adventure to the outback was what enticed me initially. I can say now that I have been fully exposed to the Project and what it entails, and am keen to continue being involved and to contribute in what way I can. 

Shu's work space, showing the specimen and her drawing on tracing paper. (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2013)

What attracted your plant, Atriplex limbata?

Atriplex limbata (Photo copyright: Anne Lawson)

It is a saltbush, from the Chenopdiaceae family.

I was drawn to its pale minty colour, and hardy structure (the leaves, stems, fruit are fairly robust and could withstand a bit of handling). It turned out to be a good choice for me as I have a preference for drawing in pencil and I believe the pale colour of the plant would work well if presented in graphite, with potentially a hint of colour using dry brush technique.

A unique way of holding the specimen upright while keeping it in water!
(Photo copyright: Anne Lawson, 2013)

How are you going about your drawing?

I like drawing tiny things!

Very slowly, as with all my drawings. I studied the plant closely whilst in Menindee and have taken a number of close up photos of individual stems and of the plant itself. I did a couple of sketches to start, made various notes about the plant and worked up some colour samples. The drawing will have to be completed in Melbourne.


















Have you enjoyed your time at Menindee?

Yes, thoroughly! It was good to do something that was, for me, completely out of the ordinary and I look forward to making a trip out to Menindee with the BBBs again sometime in the near future.

What a wonderful week!

Dear Beckler's Botanical Beauts and many friends,

What a wonderful week we had in Menindee this year, 2013, our 4^th annual trip. The locals are getting to know us by name and regularly visit us in the hall. 

Our group this year consisted of 11 artists, one photographer and one botanist with his family. We booked the Hall for 9 days this year which turned out much better than previous years, of only 5 days. All artists chose at least one plant to illustrate and several artists collected up to three.

Results: 11 artists undergoing 17 new paintings with accompanying plant collections.

Amy, Valerie, Wal, Andrew and I arrived a couple of days early this year which turned out to be extremely helpful. ‘Gun’ Amy organised much collecting and Andrew spent long enthusiastic days identifying the plants. By the first day in the hall artists had a chosen species to illustrate!  As more artists arrived through the week they were able to choose from a list of identified Beckler plants flowering this year. As the arid species are so reliant on local weather conditions, we have come to understand it is best to be on site to see which species to choose to paint in any given year.

Sandy shore of receding Lake Menindee     (Photo copyright: Mali Moir, 2013)

We were in Menindee a little earlier this year and so it was a little cooler, the days were glorious with only a couple of very windy nights. Last to pack up the hall was Amy, Valerie, Wal and I, and so we thought it fitting to celebrate the end of another wonderful year in our fav arid zone with steak sandwiches and Cow Girl shots on the receding white sandy shores of Lake Menindee in Kinchega National Park. As you can see we got there rather late and missed the setting sun but were entranced by the lights of the Milky Way and saw 3 satellites and one majestic falling star.

Magical moonrise     (Photo copyright: Mali Moir, 2013)

This year I was invited to give a talk at the Mildura Arts Centre as part of the Art of Science Exhibition focusing on my role as expedition artist with special mention of the Beckler’s Botanical Bounty project .... great opportunity to spread the word ! Local radio is often interested in our story, this year we were interviewed by ABC Rural.

We plan to return to Menindee again next October to continue our project. Margot Muscat from the Darling Shire Council has asked us to contribute a photographic exhibition of our project to be displayed next year on our 5^th visit. I have had brief discussions with a few curators regarding exhibition opportunities of our project including paintings, photographs, plant specimens and paraphernalia in 2015. Other opportunities for exhibition and publication continue to be discussed.

A special thanks to the National Herbarium of Victoria, whose ongoing support significantly enriches our project and secures us a place in history. An extra special thanks to our honorary botanist Andrew Denham who spends his holidays with us! Thus ensuring our project runs meltdown-free.

A great many thanks to all contributors whose happy energetic input make this project a special delight to be part of. As always, I look forward to the warmth of our fav arid zone country next October, our 5^th year and our Milestone year.

Much love and many thanks to all ............. Mali

2013 -- The Year of the Flies!    (photo copyright: Mali Moir, 2013)

Becklers Botanical Bounty on the ABC

During our recent time in Menindee Mali, Margaret and Andrew were interviewed for an ABC Rural Radio programme. Follow the link to hear them talking more about the Project.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-02/rural-sach-beckler-botanical-artists-0210/4993878

Where did Beckler's Botanical Bounty come from.... and why do we do it?

To many people our project, Beckler's Botanical Bounty, is exciting, but they often ask where the idea for the project came from. Bev Wood has contributed this post to explain.

The Burke and Wills 150^th Anniversary celebrations brought together many people with a keen interest in the Victorian exploring expedition (VEE).  The complex story and its many facets continues to create interest, investigation and study.   It brings so many aspects of life, art and science into play such as surveying, botany, zoology, the weather, the stars, health, anthropology, art, survival, food, money, politics and relationships.

The Burke and Wills Historical Society (http://www.burkeandwills.org/) came into being in 2003, when 35 enthousiasts met in Cloncurry to discuss their mutual interests.  The other organisations with a particular interest in developing interpretation of the VEE are the Royal Society of Victoria (who organised the VEE in the first place) (http://www.burkeandwills.org/) and the State Library of Victoria (keeper of most of the records) (http://burkeandwills.slv.vic.gov.au/).

Menindie was the small settlement on the Darling River (in south-west New South Wales) where Burke and Wills slept in a bed for the last time, before taking off overland for Coopers’ Creek.    Burke was impatient, the expedition was already behind time.  He halved the expedition and left the Supply Party behind at Menindie (October 19, 1860) with most of the expeditions supplies (food, drugs, camping equipment, camels and horses, and so on).

This group subsequently moved to camp on Pamameroo Creek about 10km away.  It took them a long time (three months) to re-organise themselves and follow Burke, by which time it was the height of summer and a severe drought.

Although Dr Beckler was a German Medical Doctor, he had been appointed in Melbourne as one of the VEE Expedition Officers (Scientific Observers’ Botanical Observer).  Unhappy with Burke’s leadership, he resigned at Menindie in the middle of October 1860.  Burke asked him to remain with the Supply Party to take care of the stores and the remaining animals until a replacement could be found.

In the three months he was in the area with the Supply Party (until January 26^th, 1861) he undertook two expeditions.  One was the round trip rescue of two men from death at Duroadoo on the way to Coopers’ Creek.  The second was the exploration of the nearby Scrope’s Range where he collected hundreds of new plants (taxa) which had not been seen before.   He was passionate about identifying and collecting plants and sent hundreds of them back to Dr Ferdinand Mueller, Director of the National Herbarium of Victoria in Melbourne. 

There these plants remain stored in dried, pressed and catalogued form – a very important national treasure which belongs to us all.  Beckler also completed some landscape drawings and paintings in the general area, and collected 120 new specimens of plants around Menindie itself, which I will refer to as Beckler’s List.  This is where our group known as Beckler’s Botanical Bounty comes in.

In 2009, the well known Melbourne Botanical Artist and teacher - Mali Moir (http://malimoir.com.au/ arranged an excursion to the National Herbarium of Victoria for the Botanical Illustrators group at the Royal Botanical Gardens.   As one of the students - Bev Wood - was keen to see some of the plants from the 1860 collections associated with the VEE, this was kindly arranged by the Collections Manager – Dr Pina Milne.         . 

Some of the VEE plants were on display for our visit.   Afterwards, we (Mali Moir and Bev Wood) determined that we would try to join the 2010 Burke and Wills 150^th celebrations in Menindie with an interest in “growing” our experience in botanical illustration up there somehow. 

In searching for more purpose other than the painting of the local wild flowers, Mali was made aware of Dr Hermann Beckler’s role in the VEE by Museum Victoria curator John Kean, who advised ‘look at Beckler, he’s your man’.

Dr Beckler collected his plants over the Spring period and our group of botanical artists started the first of our week long annual Spring visits to Menindee in the year 2010.    We search for any of the 120 plants on Becklers List in the area of Menindee, we collect and illustrate them, and we press a specimen each for the National Herbarium of Victoria in Melbourne (http://www.rbg.vic.gov.au/science/information-and-resources/national-herbarium-of-victoria/botany-of-the-burke-and-wills-expe) and the Herbarium of New South Wales in Sydney. 

On these expeditions we have been joined by some local Menindee people, along with botanists, historians, geologists and film makers.  We need their assistance as it is a real challenge for us “City slickers” to bumble around the bush to find each plant again, let alone illustrate and press them and find a week and more in our busy lives every year to do it!!  

Yet we have undertaken such a privileged endeavour for four years now, and we just love it.  As it has for thousands of other Australians, the story of the VEE continues to fascinate us and we now feel confident that we are contributing to its legacy in a very tangible way. 

In the bush with repeated visits, we are learning heaps about the context of Botanical Illustration.  We are learning about where particular plants grow, the effect of drought and other weather conditions, and the use of the plants by the indigenous people.   We are learning to illustrate the grasses, seeds, flowers, herbs, feathers, sticks and stones and bones gathered from the bush and the rivers and creeks by our own hands. 

It gives us a real sense of connection to the specimens and the story of the VEE.  But best of all it gives us a chance to be in "country” and explore our own land and its naturally growing plants in a very intimate way.

We are often asked what we are going to do with our paintings and drawings (about 40 to date), and we are looking for an opportunity to exhibit them all at once.  In the meantime, it is our personal and collective journeys in this wide brown land and the intimate observation of some of its plants in their own environment which really counts the most.

Beverley Wood

August 2013

Beckler's Botanical Bounty 2010

The last couple of posts have been about the Burke and Wills Expedition and Hermann Beckler, the surgeon and naturalist of the expedition. When this blog was begun Mali Moir wrote about the Beckler's Botanical Project in October 2010. I am reposting some of that. 
Her passion comes shining through!



Our aim was to collect the same species of plants that Beckler collected in the same location. As botanical artists we proceeded to paint/illustrate some of the species we found.
As the fields were in spectacular bloom it was a challenge for us to choose which one we wanted to paint, and which ones were the same as Beckler's list.

We stopped at one site and noticed large patches of blue haze. This turned out to be hundreds of Wahlenbergia, the native bluebell! We were hooked and there we stayed for 3 hours discovering more and more -- the more we looked the more we found. Many daisies, salt bushes and blue bushes in full splendid colour.

Not the hazy blue Wahlenbergia, but it is the amazing habitat round Menindee

We spent 5 days in Menindee, 2 days searching, collecting and identifying, 3 days painting and illustrating.

We found 15 plants we are now painting. Out of a list of 120 we plan to return next October to continue the project.

Collecting plants for scientific research is of course very important. Illustration is a valuable tool in this research in particular as we painted these plants while they were fresh with colour.

Sunset
(photo: copyright Anne Lawson)

Botanical art is very detailed and very accurate for the purpose of scientific identification. It also invokes awareness and educates the general public to the importance of science and research through its sheer beauty.

"Artists make science visible" I have lived by this philosophy for nearly 20 years now. Without artists and art the world would be a much darker and duller place.


It is our vision to fill in some of the gaps by illustrating the plants on Beckler's list. The importance of this project is immense. 

We aim to put our work on exhibition sometime in the future.

.......... Mali