BURNT BANKSIA
Last year I went on a trip to the Blue Mountains in Australia and fell in love with the banksia plants. Their strong black colour, the burnt plants from the bushfires were in contrast with the other mostly-looking-green plants, inspiring my imagination...I took a lot of photos and did some live sketching there...Then I kept drawing and painting in my studio, adding colours to the banksia. Experimentation is a strong element in my art, and I love playing with mediums and exploring the endless possibilities of art-making. This series is about honoring the beauty of the Australian landscape and giving hope to the regrowth of the burnt vegetation…hope we wish for any living creatures! Finding beauty and harmony in everyday life, for me, is uplifting to the soul, reinvigorating, and exciting for the future to come!.
This Small series of 12 A5 mixed-media paintings entails the use of ink, beeswax, pastels, charcoal, AU original stamps and my unique Venetian stamp on watercolour paper.
“My art is inspired by nature and I fell in love with these amazing Banksia plants on one of my trips to the Blue Mountains, Australia.
The deep black of these plants reminds me of the bushfires we had in the past, yet It feels to me like a distant memory, now filled with hope, strength, and re-birth...beauty is what I see, beauty is what I feel.-Gaia”
“I like to include my Venetian seal stamp as part of the painting composition…it is indeed part of my artwork, complementing it and balancing it, I choose different colours depending on how I feel about the composition...as If the artwork spoke to me choosing Its own colour...”
“I love the free-flow brushstrokes using ink and I’m fascinated by stamps...I thought it to be a perfect match, honouring the beauty of the Australian landscape.-Gaia”
Blue Mountains, Australia
Banksia Plant, Blue Mountains, Australia
Banksia Plant, Blue Mountains, Australia