South Side Art Market

Big day today. Big sleep tonight.
Faces, friends, hot shoppers, lots of artists showing wares.
South Side Art Market really draws a crowd. 
And fun.

Looks like the One Man Art Show is a goer. So took the birds for a fly on a recent trip to Sydney. Bondi Beach. The bird is a Western Spinebill from West Coast Australia so it seemed appropriate to house him with local flora – namely a rareish Black Kangaroo Paw with Blue Lechenaultia, and Lamb's tail.

Putting it together

Desktop space is invariably crowded with bits and pieces. 'Works in progress'. This one is particularly tough to figure out. What to do? The guy in the boat (me) was drawn in 199?. The Jesus Bird came next. The croc was last year. The giant lotus and leaf are today. All memories of the Kakadu visit in the mid 90s when the head guy had me towed solo, on to Yellow Waters in a small tinny to await sunrise and photograph Giant Red Lotus openings. The mind played tricks about crocodiles but scuffles turned out to be Lily Walkers. The assignment was for Ita Buttrose and made in the company of writer Patsy Hollis. Now, just how do you bring all that into one picture. Beats me.

Better late than never

Better late than never, originally uploaded by maxful.

Happy New 2014

Vanda Miss Joaquim orchid

Vanda Miss Joaquim orchid, originally uploaded by manful.

Late 19th Century one Agnes Joaquim discovered a new orchid growing in her Singapore garden – a natural hybrid (or so she claimed) between two lovely species, Malayan Vanda hookeriana and the Burmese Vanda teres. The lady was an avid gardener so truth be told she probably gave nature a little prod along. But never let truth get in the way of a good story.

Thus was born the beautiful Singapore Orchid, Vanda Miss Joaquim, finally crowned in 1981 as the national flower of Singapore. What an achievement.

V. Miss Joaquim is a rampant, rather rangy lady and great stands of the orchid flourish in the Singapore Botanic Gardens at two and three metres height, but there is a delicacy to the flower itself. This, the first showing in my new orchid space, feels a bit yellowy to me, but time will tell. It’s just lovely to find the lady flourising here in Brisbane suburbia, so far from home. A world traveller.