2016 ... can't believe its nearly December!

2016
... where did it go?

I do hope any readers passing by have fared well this year.

For me the year flew past & I seriously ran out of time for mailing out E-Newsletters, blogging and even updating the website at times.

I discovered the running of an ONLINE STORE is actually impossible away from home and had to leave it as well.

2016 was many things, demanding at times but it was meeting good people far and wide, some travel in Australia, a number of fantastic workshops ... SEEDS THROUGH AN ARTIST'S LENS.

Western Hwy, travelling past the Grampians in Western Victoria

Visiting the Australian Grains Genebank, Horsham, Victoria

I hibernated in winter painting and Ive work in shows currently running in Cambridge MA in the States and at Newcastle Art Gallery.

Concertina Book Series painting during Winter.

I held exhibitions in Sydney during March at PlantBank on the grounds of the Australian Botanic Garden, Mt Annan where I had conducted 3 residences since 2014

PlantBank Exhibition

 ... and at the Lost Ones Gallery in Ballarat, Victoria in April.

Lost Ones Gallery, Ballarat

Visit the Website for an overview, find me on Facebook at Homage to the Seed and for the most up-to-date info on what Im up to best to follow me at Instagram/sophiemunns and I post daily there and tell of workshops and event coming up.

WORKSHOPS were a great highlight of the year:

Melbourne Botanic Garden in April at a 2 Day workshop with
guest speaker Neville Walsh who discussed his life-long work
as a Botanist & more recently also Seedbank Co-ordinator with
 the Australian Seedbank Partnership. While particpants drew
quietly he brought his work to life for us, offering a fascinating
glimpse into the way science and conservation work in very
particular habitats ... the Alpine region being one of his areas of
specialist interest. Such a treat for all on this wonderful weekend. 

Domain House at RBG Victoria... our workshop venue.

Maroochy Bushland Botanic Gardens, Sunshine Coast...
a wonderful venue for a September weekend workshop!

Thanks for visiting and reading if you found your way through this post.

Sending my best to you all as the year winds down,
Sophie

January PlantBank Residency & Workshop.

Arriving at the Australian Botanic Gardens at Mt Annan in SW Sydney this week on Monday afternoon, January 4th I was amazed to see how green it was & stopped by the lake on the drive in to take some photos!

It had rained most of the day but I took photos of two different Casuarina Species that I noticed on my last visit when one of them was flowering.

Casuarina

On the road into Plantbank at the ABG Mt Annan

I was delighted to be back at ‪#PlantBank‬ catching up with people back early from Xmas Holidays... rather quiet compared to usual but very pleasant for settling in, finding studio space to set up and seeing where projects are at here at Plantbank.

Below are Seedpods collected in the Whitsundays by Australian Botanic Gardens Mt Annan Director John Siemon last year.

I took loads of photos of them on the first evening & drew them last night! Have been wanting to find these pods for ages.

From Wiki:

Entada rheedii, commonly known as the African Dream Herb or Snuff Box Sea Bean, and as the Cacoon Vine in Jamaica, is a large woody liana or climber. Their seeds have a thick and durable seed coat which allows them to survive lengthy periods of immersion in seawater.

Match Box Seedpods collected in the Whitsunday Islands, Qld
by ABG Director, John Siemon.

Matchbox Seedpod

Below: capturing Match box seedpods with quink ink in my 'new' studio.

First a quick journal drawing ... had to use the 60 cm x 22 cm journal to fit in these pods 50 cm pods ... wanted to capture the form by tracing! They're designed for tracing!

60 cm x 22 cm journal

The second version is slower in execution having thought through what I'm after.

Journal on left and work on paper on right.

After taking loads of photos  of the Matchbox Seedpod at ‪#‎Plantbank I worked on Digitalart interpretations like this one below.

Digital art.

Art the moment I am also preparing for the 3 DAY Workshop from January 16 - 18 here next week.

A few have chosen the option of doing a ONE-DAY only workshop and others are travelling from as far as Western Australian & Canberra. I'm really looking forward to running this workshop & one here also in March during the Exhibition I'm holding of my artwork.

Bookings for Plantbank Workshops are though my ONLINE STORE: 

http://seedartlabstudio.bigcartel.com/products

2015 Artwork

Some artwork from 2015 at a glance.

And from Instagram the BestNine Images from 2015 at my gallery, as voted by the number of likes per image: https://www.instagram.com/sophiemunns/

Wishing you all a wonderful 2016! 

Sophie x