Sydney Sketch Club met at Royal Botanic Garden on an overcast Spring Day. We went to the Australian Rockery area, which is down near the entrance near the Opera House.Kerry ( RBG staff) told me of the significance of everything in my drawing.
In the foreground are Gymea Lilies, which are a plant of the Sydney region. They have a flower spike of about 6 meters, which flowers in Spring ad Summer. They were used as a source of food for the indigenous Eora pople. They are now being used as indicator as part of climate change project.
In the mid-ground is the sea wall, a sandstone wall built in 1848 as about 3 acres of tidal land at the edge of the Gardens was reclaimed at Farm Cove.
In the background, beyond Sydney Harbour are the headlands, where the ships carrying the First Fleet of European settlers arrived in Sydney in 1788.
These are Xanthorrhoea (grass trees) .
They are a unique part of the Australian landscape.
As I drew this, I made notes on my page of all the sounds I could hear around me. Kookaburras, children playing and fighting, the tourist train, party boats on the Harbour, a helicopter, jetboats, tourists. sketchers chatting.. and in the moments of quietness I could hear leaves falling or the water lapping against the sea wall.
I like the sketchbook spine line through the grass tree, Alissa. It's perfectly placed to look like the high tide line from the old days.
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