Botanica: Symbiosis Exhibition

I was lucky enough to have a painting in the Botanica: Symbiosis exhibition held at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney earlier this month. The annual exhibition, now in its 19th year, features contemporary botanical artwork by Australian and international artists.

This year's theme was symbiosis, which is the interaction of two species and within that there are several different kinds of symbiosis. As example, mutualism is a kind of symbiosis whereby both species benefit from the interaction, such as pollination.

For the exhibition, I painted a Harlequin Cotton Bug, which has a parasitic relationship with Hibiscus trees. These bugs live around us and for some reason, especially love Amy's car. They're often there in clusters and since we're big GOT fans, I've nicknamed Amy 'mother of bugs'

The painting is made from acrylic and wax/oil and was 11 x 14 inches. It was on a wood panel and I'm so excited to to say that it sold on opening night!

The other artworks in the exhibition were extraordinary and so inspiring! It was especially interesting to see how the theme of symbiosis was approached by everyone and in addition to being blown away by the art, I also learned a lot about symbiosis!

The exhibition was held at Lion Gate Lodge, in the Botanic Gardens in Sydney from April 21 - May 6. It is organized and supported by Foundation and Friends of the Botanic Gardens Ltd, but run entirely by volunteers from everything to the curators, cafe and and sales.

You can see the full online catalogue and all the artwork in the exhibition on the botanic gardens website: https://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/whatson/botanica

Next year will be the 20th anniversary of the exhibition and it will be held at the beginning of April. It's a definite don't miss!

Cheers,
Stephanie