Wellington Botanic Gardens Art Residency 1 February - 30 March 2024

This year the Friends of the Wellington Botanic Gardens selected me for their second artist in Residence.

The main purpose of the programme is to:

• Celebrate the natural beauty of the garden

• Support a local artist

• Attract the public to the garden

• Enable visitors to view the plants and the gardens through the eyes of an artist

• Allow staff to see their collections in a new way

• Allow participation by members and the public in workshops run by the artist

• Provide an artistic focus in the gardens each summer

This is the second artist in residence I have held at a botanic garden - the first being at Auckland Botanic gardens in Manurewa in 2013.

Both residencies were a highlight in my career.

Wellington gardens are comprised of the Wellington Botanic Gardens

ki Paekākā. (25 hectares of protected native bush, floral displays and themed gardens), Bolton Street cemetery and Otari /Wilton Bush.

The area has been an important site for generations. The people of Te Atiawa from Pipitea Marae used the Botanic Garden for ngakinga (food cultivation,) collecting native plants for construction, food, fibre and medicine.

The botanic gardens themselves were established in 1868, managed by the NZ Institute and planted in major conifer species. This was part of a programme to assess imported plant species and their economic potential for the new colony. Wellington City Council have managed the Botanic garden since 1891, developing the Lady Norwood Rose Garden (opened 1953), the Begonia House and the Treehouse Visitor Centre.

A garden of National Significance, the botanic garden was also the first public garden in NZ classified as a historic area by Heritage NZ Pouhere Taonga

The Treehouse Visitor Centre, which can be accessed via top of the cable car or Salamanca Road entrance, was where I was located. It is also where the shop is, filled with many temptations. I was encouraged to have all my merchandise and existing artworks out for sale and this proved very profitable, with 30% commission going to the Friends.

My workspace was in a lovely sunny spot with ample light from windows beside and behind me. And right near the door, so I was in full view for all visitors, including the hundreds of cruise ship tourists!! 

It is a challenge for any artist to paint and chat almost non stop from 9am-4pm, so as my mission was to ‘hero’ the gardens, I decided that to make it work I would ‘hero’ a plant a day in a simple and affordable way.  This allowed me to relax  over the work rather than stress with watercolour washes while chatting!

Painting and chatting to visitors

My introduction to the gardens was via a walking tour with local retired botanist Reg Harris where we circumnavigated the gardens and ambled around various tracks where he pointed out and informed me about particular species. This was helpful in giving me a picture of the scale and scope of the gardens.

So my day started with finding a ‘cool’ plant to focus on- I would photograph it for lighting/colour, then sketch it directly in my journal with pen, in situ if the weather allowed, then work on a final pen sketch outdoors, with colour wash added back at my desk with my ipad open showing the colour photo, for reference. Sometimes I managed two plants a day. As I was only there three days a week; Friday to Sunday, I would hang at least six

works up on the wall at the end of my week. One black and white line sketch and one colour sketch. Alongside I hung information about each of the plants featured and directed the public to where they could view them.

My end of the week wall of artwork for people to purchase

The most popular was the extremely unusual and ‘Goth’ Tacca- or Bat Plant from S E Asia growing amongst some other spectacular plants in the Begonia House. It is easily missed as its flowers are brown and don’t stand out well – however with its long whiskers and bat-like appearance it is intriguing and totally captivating once spotted.

I kept pricing well down for these sketches and people could purchase a work and take it with them. This suited the travelling visitors very well.

Native Lobelia watercolour

image of native lobelia