Wattle Bird with Casuarina and Coastal Banksia

For this painting I have been furthering my exploration of mark making and really enjoying the qualities of my materials. I work in gouache on very thick textured paper, varying the paint consistency from thick and opaque to a watery wash that bleeds so beautifully into the paper and lets me achieve those lovely random watermarks.

When I began painting birds and plants a few years ago, my work was quite flat and graphic, almost screen print - like, and painted onto crisp white backgrounds. As my painting practice evolves, I am beginning to include more layering and detail, and exploring the use of Australian landscapes in my work.

This work is the second painting of a similar theme and same size, they would work well as a pair hung together.

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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.