The mangroves of Moreton Bay form the basis of an exhibition of work by botanical artist Clare Loveband, open at the Redland Museum until October 16.
Ironically it was a similar exhibition by the society in 2006 also at the museum that was the impetus for Ms Loveband to take up botanical art.
Ms Loveband said she already held a fine arts certificate with Tanya Robertson-Cunningham and Rod Taylor (art history), but was inspired to attend BASQ painting and drawing classes with Margaret Hastie. She is now guided by former illustrator for the Mount Coot-tha Botanical Gardens Gillian Rankin and has completed a natural history illustration certificate course.
“I live near Eprapah, so I started to paint mangroves there. I realised after some research that mangroves are not all those struggling on a coastal landscape. Here were different species,” she said.
“The first two mangrove paintings I did were the orange and river mangroves, found in Eprapah, which is a Ramsar site containing a wetland of international environmental importance designated by UNESCO. The difference between the two species surprised me because my initial impression of mangroves was the grey mangrove, which is main species seen on the rivers and coastal areas. The remaining species were found at Oyster Point and the white flowered rare black found in a very healthy mangrove community at Amity.”
In total, the exhibition features various works of eight Moreton Bay mangrove species. Other works in the 35-piece exhibition include gingers and bromeliads.
