Red Eucalyptus Blooms

A simple, loose and fun study of Australian native eucalyptus blooms that seem to glow from within. These flowers look like mini fire works exploding, and I've tried to capture their exuberance with random splashes of red paint. This piece could be hung "upside down" too, as eucalyptus flowers often hang downwards on the tree.

The painting is on off white/cream hot pressed watercolour paper that is 38.5cm x 28.5cm, with a 10mm bleed edge on all sides for framing. The piece is signed on the front, and signed and dated on the back.

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Hi there, I’m Kate. Thanks for looking at my art!

I am a largely self taught hobby artist, working mainly in watercolour, pen and ink and graphite. I don’t have any formal fine art training, but brief study of interior and industrial design grounded me in the fundamentals of highly detailed representational work. Despite my love of the finer details I am trying to find a looser, more emotive style, veering toward semi-abstract.

I enjoy learning the properties and limits of an often unpredictable medium like watercolour, because it’s equally frustrating and satisfying. Sometimes when you think watercolour has gone very badly wrong it turns out so right! This is why you’ll find chaotic experimentation and controlled detail contrasted in my work.

I don’t have a particular narrative I’m trying to deliver: I’m a dilettante mainly driven by the aesthetic, especially that of the natural world. I find inspiration in random places, from magazines to photography, to hikes in the bush and doing my own never-ending gardening, to graphic design. I work from my own reference photographs and stock photography.