Silvereyes and Pink Peppercorn - 2023

Original Layered gouache painting a featuring a pair of native Silvereyes perched on some Pink Peppercorn. My work is very much connected to the place I live and features the backyard birds and plants common to my inner city neighbourhood. There are several peppercorn trees on my daily walking route, I can't resist grabbing their low hanging branches and squeezing the delicate leaves through my hands to activate and inhale the gorgeous scent. Aside from Gardenia, Peppertree is my absolute favourite smell!

The combination of soft blues and greens with the Chartreuse plumage of the birds is very pleasing with the little pink berries in this work. Pictured with another painting (Lillypilly Magpie) also for sale on Bluethumb. They are the same size and look great hung together as a pair.

Painted on to the finest quality super thick textured watercolour paper (so there's no crinkling) and sealed with an archival watercolour fixative. Please select a framing option at check out if you would like to receive this work framed. ***Protective copyright watermark is on the digital file only***

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Floriosa is the botanical painting practice of Australian artist Sally Browne.
I've been making art for as long as I can remember. What was meant to be a one-year trip from the UK to Sydney in 1994 somehow became a permanent move, and Australia has been home ever since.
Much of my work begins outdoors. I love wandering through suburban streets noticing flowering trees, plants spilling over fences, unexpected colour combinations and the small details that most of us walk straight past. I often come home with armfuls of flowers, seedpods and odd little cuttings that eventually find their way into my paintings.

Although my work begins with observation, it rarely stays there. A vase of flowers, a flowering gum or a bird perched in the garden might provide the starting point, but colour, memory and imagination soon take over. I'm less interested in painting a particular flower than in capturing the feeling of being surrounded by nature.

Before becoming a full-time artist in 2015, I worked in graphic design, surface pattern and printmaking, experiences that continue to influence my love of colour, rhythm and composition. I'm also inspired by the simplicity and spontaneity of Chinese and Japanese ink painting, though over the years my own work has evolved into a looser, more contemporary style.

Alongside Floriosa, I maintain a contemporary fine art practice under my own name, exhibiting regularly throughout Australia. Over the past decade I've been fortunate to place hundreds of original paintings into private collections both here and overseas. These days, if I'm not in the studio, there's a good chance I'm wandering around Sydney with secateurs in my bag, bringing home flowers, seedpods and whatever else catches my eye.