Exhibition runs March 17th – April 16th. Preview here
Find us at 4 Selbourne Rd Kew, Thurs -Sat 12-5pm. We are closed on Good Friday April 15th. 9815.224.
Good evening and welcome to this much anticipated joint exhibition of recent works by Dianne Emery and Simon Deere. It is indeed a treat to be able to attend an opening, especially with the chaos that COVID 19 has created within the arts industry.
This evening we can view firsthand the original artworks and speak with the artists to find out more about their process. With botanical art we can still find the disciplines of art and science expressing their joint concern for the accurate description of the world.
The centuries-old art form of botanical illustration is highly specialised – where plant portraits combine finely observed detail with artistic expression. Traditionally this was as a form of scientific representation, fundamentally for the purpose of identifying and classifying plants in situ.
Surprisingly there is a resurgence of realism in contemporary art practice which has inspired many prominent Australian artists to adopt more contemporary interpretations and therefore pushing the boundaries of this art form into mainstream.
More established galleries are showing interest in displaying this art, and there are more opportunities to study and appreciate botanic art.
I have had the extreme pleasure of knowing and working with Dianne for almost 20 years now. Even my sister Ana was one of Dianne’s students when she was teaching at PLC in the late 80’s early 90’s. Dianne is a contemporary botanical and natural history artist, living and working in Melbourne.
Her background in fine art and horticulture has inspired her to reveal her subjects scientifically, empirically and as individual character studies. Turning to botanical art in the late 1980s, Dianne has maintained a strong desire to explore scientific/ natural history art.
Dianne and I have great love for all things unusual and rare, most recently I have been sharing Instagram images of outstanding hellebores from Japan. What I see in Dianne is a kindred spirit, we love to capture that interest of a rare plant.
Anyone who has admired and even collected the works of Dianne will attest to the use of colour and light. Dianne’s Destiny Peony being the most incredible piece of contemporary botanical art created to date, and I include Rory McEwan in that assay.
Capturing light is, I think, one of the strengths to her work. This is also supported by the subtle narrative associated with each piece. All these works have back stories. I recently found out that the pomegranates come from one of Dianne’s students that was mauled by possums yet still creates an engaging work. It is beautiful but damaged and evokes feelings of transience and ephemerality of nature. We are at the whim of nature, as it doesn’t wait for everyone, you can blink and the flower has faded.
Dianne and I show together regularly and recently have embarked on more curatorial shows through larger institutions. We are looking forward to starting new work on a show to be incorporated into the Rory McEwan travelling show in the US in 2023.
Dianne’s commandments include:
‘If you don’t feel like painting, paint until you do feel like painting’.
‘Creativity can’t be turned on and off like a tap’.
‘Go darker!’
Dianne and I show together regularly and recently have embarked on more curatorial shows through larger institutions. We are looking forward to starting new work on a show to be incorporated into the Rory McEwan travelling show in the US in 2023.
Working in graphite and exploring predominantly botanical subjects, Simon Deere creates a strong sense of drama in his reinterpretation of natural forms in decay. When the structures of plants break down, creating new forms and new textures, these intimately observed works lead the viewer into an intriguing world of collapsing plant architecture, where the play of light and shadow upon subjects transforms them into monuments of their former incarnations.
Simon always drew as a child, he has a background in graphic design, working mostly on commercial publications/ corporate projects. Simon moved to screen printing, before he moved to Darwin and fell into gardening. Like Dianne the Botanical Art gateway is through nature and gardening: spending time amongst plants and taking time out of life to observe and investigate the natural world.
The selection of the subject matter, the observation, and ultimately the drawing process is Deere’s commentary on the art of slowing down and connecting with the natural world in way that is too often shunned in these times of instant and quickly forgotten images. We get to share in the process and the time spent on the works, a testament to craft and skill and continual perfection.
Simon has exhibited in several solo and group shows over the last ten years. I remember seeing Simon’s work at one of his solo shows called ‘Structure’, Brunswick Street Gallery, in 2016. These works were incredible, and again, extreme amounts of time and focus were needed to bring these works to fruition. The Ginger root was a fine example.
Working in monochrome, Simon is not only able to capture the transition of light and dark but also texture and form, magically we can also see colour, this is not easy to achieve, and Simon does it so effortlessly.
Both Simon and Dianne are recipients of the Celia Rosser Medal. The Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne first introduced the Celia Rosser Medal for Botanical Art to commemorate Dr Celia Rosser’s significant achievements as a botanical artist and her commitment to a long-term body of work of international significance. It is the intention of the award to reflect these achievements and be presented to exhibiting artists whose works show excellence in one or more aspects of the botanical art form. Simon was awarded his in 2018 and Dianne has won the award four times: enough for a matching set of earrings, a necklace and brooch.
Tonight we all get to enjoy these exceptional examples of botanical art and gain a deeper understanding to the complex painting and graphite application. These works take time and I would like to emphasise that the hours, days, months that go into making these artworks, is a labour of love and commitment to the subject. Both artists have confessed that you have to love your subject, you can fall in and out of love with paintings, but what we have here this evening is evidence of a successful loving relationship and maybe a new one.
This is definitely the ‘Slow Art’ movement. These hand-rendered works reach a level of connection with nature and prove that man and nature are not so different. They allow us to be sensitive, to slow down and to look closely. I hope that the artists and their works in this exhibition will inspire the next generation of artists.
John Pastoriza Pinol – March 2022
