Work in progress ...I'm often asked "How long does it take you to do a picture?" and of course it can vary according to the subject matter. I'm currently focussing on a series of gardens, having enjoyed making my Secret Artist contribution for the Stroud Museum in the Park Secret Garden project last year.
These pictures are taking me several days each to produce due to the nature (excuse the pun!) of the subject matter and that I've chosen to carefully cut out flowers and plants to go in my gardens. Making a collage using stamps is quite a complicated matter as unlike an artist using a palette of colours ready to mix and apply, I have to search through books, boxes and bags to find the right stamps for the job, which can take ages. I sometimes just spend time browsing through my stock, sorting out stamps which may be suitable for certain future projects and then putting them aside, hoping I will remember where I've put them!
The beauty of a Stamp Collage garden is that it's in flower all year round and also I've filled my gardens with plants that appeal to me without necessarily taking into condition the climate! Artistic license of sorts I suppose.
By sheer coincidence I watched Mastermind last night and the specialist subject of one of the contestants was Sir Joseph Banks, the botanist. I had only just finished my picture which includes a border of Australian 33c stamps featuring a plant discovered by Banks on his voyage with Captain Cook on the Endeavour to New Holland and named appropriately Banksia serrata. It's a shrub which can grow to 10 m and flowers from January to June in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania! The stamp is one of a set issued in 1986.
The left hand border contains Helichrysum thomsonii - Thomson's Everlasting which is a perennial herb growing in Australia. Australian 18 c stamp issued in 1975.
The pathway is made of stamps featuring aboriginal art: Bush Potato Country 1979 by Turkey Tolsen Tjupurrula/David CorbyTjapaitjarri.
More on Joseph Banks in another blog ...
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