life amongst the gum trees

Working back in the urban studio is making me dream of Australia again. Before leaving I was in the Snowy Mountains near Lake Eucambene. It is a landscape with trees that tell its history: amongst the gum trees, European trees nestle where homesteads once were. Eucambene was a thriving community supporting several hundreds of people while the Snowy Mountain (Hydro) scheme was being built and now the few remaining houses are used mostly as agricultural sheds. The dam was completed in 1958.  

tin shed on a farm in the Snowy Mountains

Eucalyptus

What I particularly loved were the eucalyptus trees. With the amount of water and ground water in the region they grow tall. 

Evening amongst eucalyptus trees

Fig trees

I have just returned from 6 weeks of drawing trees in Australia. An extraordinary experience and they were bewilderingly beautiful. My journey began with a visit to the Royal Botanic Gardens plant pathology laboratories in Sydney. I have to thank them for allowing me to visit, I learnt so much. The images of what I saw were so attractive like microscopic etchings.

Tree in the Botanic Gardens

I spent most of my time in Sydney working with urban trees. I was three weeks in Bellevue Hill Park drawing Morton Bay Fig trees. It is rare that I have the chance to work somewhere so deliciously warm.

work in progress, ink drawing

When the nearby school was sealed from the park because traces of fibro building material had been found (containing asbestos) that were being washed down from the park above, I began to realise that life for an urban tree (or artist) can be more precarious than one realizes. Fortunately the site was given the all clear and the asbestos particles were discovered to be bound within the building material.