TEXT AND PHOTOGRAPHY MALI MOIRENDNOTE
As a botanical artist working at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, I was able
to collect this enormous, heavy, three-metre-long flower spike of Doryanthes
palmeri (giant spear lily). It was truly the largest I had ever dealt with, bursting
with a multitude of crimson red colours. I needed a friend to help me set it up
in my studio; we supported it with planks from below and suspended it with
ropes from above. Due to the deterioration of the fresh material and the fact I
only had one specimen to work with, planning my painting process was critical.
Rather than completing one segment at a time, I progressed over the page starting
with buds, moving on to flowers and finishing with fruits, stems and bracts. It was so
much fun! This painting [featured on this issue of Landscape Architecture Australia’s
cover] took 150 hours to complete over several months. It now hangs in the New York
State Museum in the USA.82 MAY 2017 LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AUSTRALIA