Margaret Lesley Hall

I am currently both an Art Educator and Mother to my 4-year-old twin girls.

My interest in botanical illustration began when I moved to my current home in outback northwest Victoria on the Wallpolla Creek. Prior to beginning my journey into botanical illustration, I created large scale landscapes in oil. I was inspired to paint by the vastness of the remote landscapes I saw around me, but it wasn’t until I moved away from the city and onto this isolated bushland property that I really began to feel a connection with the total landscape and its flora. I began to look down and around at the plants growing all around me. Their ways of life are now a source of constant inspiration.

My goal is to create botanical works which draw attention to the beauty of the plants around my home. The scrubby, straggly, and often small plants are mostly overlooked, but they have an appeal all their own. I began my studies at the RBGE with the long-term goal of creating a florilegium of my property. I hope to publish this as a book in the future.

Title of the Project:

Plants of the Wallpolla Creek

About the Project:

I feel very passionately about preserving and rehabilitating the land surrounding my home. The artworks I have created for this unit of work is with the intention of publishing them as part of a larger florilegium to support this cause.

The area of land I have studied, adjoins the Wallpolla Creek and Murray River and consists of floodplains, river flats, flooded river basins, seasonally flooded grassland and savannah. I have really endeavoured to depict the personality of each plant as well as the pattern of growth. I have chosen an open composition to help capture the growth habit, and I have included seeds, drupes and pods to give a narrative to the artworks. Studying these plants has been a fascinating journey that continues to delight me.

Illustrations: