Finding inspiration for new work......
Exquisitely painted in the late 1800's by Marianne Collinson Campbell (1827-1903) is a beautiful bunch of Sturt's desert pea (Swainsona formosa) held in the National Library of Australia and published in "Women of Flowers". I have isolated the central pea for my reinterpretation in reclaimed needlework and named it 'Marianne's clianthus' as the desert pea was once also named clianthus formosus. I like the play of innuendo in that particular Latin name which seems to reference the 'sexualised' parts of a plant in botanical illustration. "...we saw that beautiful flower the Clianthus formosa [sic] in splendid blossom on the plains. It was growing amid barrenness and decay, but its long runners were covered with flowers that gave a crimson tint to the ground." (From Charles Sturt's journal, Narrative of an Expedition into Central Australia).