NatureArt Lab Blog

Nicole Crosswell is a practising visual artist, arts facilitator, and the scientific illustrator for The Queensland Herbarium at Mt. Coot-tha Botanical Gardens. Her arts practice embodies the phrase ‘to draw’; from contemporary manipulation of physical thread and line through to traditional methods of drawing and mark making. In both her professional and personal life is Nicole’s passion for the natural world and its dynamic evolution.

Lesley Wallington is a professional, award-winning artist and tutor with more than 30 years’ teaching experience. Her journey in water based media, through studies at the ANU School of Art has resulted in innovative approaches to her painting and competency across a range of mediums. With a background in Biology, Ecology and Mathematics Lesley brings together in her work, a love of art, science and nature.

Valerie Kirk spent three weeks as an artist-in-residence at Namadgi National Park exploring concepts of time, impermanence, living in the present and being mindful of the past and future in this awe-inspiring natural landscape. During the residency she studied the granite rocks and plants, documenting the impact of fires, rain and climate change through expressive drawing and weaving “en plein air”. 

I’m lucky to live close enough to Ginninderra Creek to walk there most days. Before the arrival of my little red dog Ruby, a jaunt around the closest five kilometre loop took about 40 minutes. These days it takes more like an hour, but it is definitely my favourite hour of the day.

Welcome to the blog for Reflections on Nature. We’ve started it up so that those of you who want to tell a bit more of a story about the natural world and your experiences in it will have the space to do so. Whether you write prose, use a pencil and watercolours, wield a camera, compile note books full  of field notes or write poetry, are a professional artist or a complete beginner, your contribution is more than welcome. As a group, we moderators cover the spectrum of experience and focus and are keen to encourage everyone to post and share. We want to hear from as many different voices as possible. It’s that kind of space.

I have been on twelve other photo tours or workshops in the last eight years and organised a couple myself.  This one stood out not merely for the magic of the rainforest wildlife but also as socially harmonious and stimulating.The highlights for me were seeing giant flying squirrels, bearded pigs, orangutans and sun bears in Sepilok, pig tailed macaques, proboscis monkeys and  a slow loris at the Kinabatangan River and gibbons, hornbills, a clouded leopard and a tarsier in Tabin.  

For the first time in my life I observed more mammal species than reptile species (mammal diversity is often hard to observe), and encountered life-changing experiences like a clouded leopard feeding on a palm civet up on a tree, which I got to capture with my lens after waiting for almost two hours. This blog relates the experiences of Dr Damien Esquerre, co-leader and photography tutor on our twelve day nature photography trip to Sabah, Malaysian Borneo from 2 - 14 May 2019. 

In April 2019 I was lucky enough to join the second NatureArt tour to Borneo as accompanying art tutor. Not having travelled to this part of the world and knowing very little about the plants and wildlife we would encounter I was very excited to be a part of the trip. From my perspective I can think of no better way to get to know and understand unfamiliar living things than by spending the time observing and drawing them. This is when the rest of the world quietens down and it becomes possible to feel an affinity with what is in front of you.

"I realised that ... a workshop (on bettongs) was really worth doing .... Sure, it was going to be an enormous challenge for everyone, and yet the science and the culture it would embrace and promote is so critically important for the future".

NatureArt Lab's recent workshops have focused on endangered and threatened wildlife species, including the elusive Southern Bettong. Following a special twilight tour at Mulligan's Flat in Canberra, Australian illustrator Peter Trusler led a group of enthusiastic artists on a journey to better understand the bettong - using oil paints, coloured pencil and watercolour to create a series of impressive artworks.