A Place Called Gymea
It's no coincidence that these (this and the one below) are inspired by Gymea, the place where we stayed in Sydney, Gymea, the native Australian lily and Les Bursill's amazing tour of Aborigine sacred sites.
The Gymea Lily (Doryanthes excelsa) is a flowering plant indigenous to the coastal areas of New South Wales around Sydney.
The plant has sword-like leaves more than a meter long. It flowers in spring and summer, sending up a flower spike up to 6 m high, which at its apex bears a large cluster of bright red flowers, each 10 cm across.
The name "Gymea Lily" is derived from a local Eora dialect. Dory-anthes means spear-flower in Greek, and excelsa is Latin for exceptional. The Sydney suburbs of Gymea and Gymea Bay are named after the lily.
The genus Doryanthes was first described in 1802 by the Portuguese priest, statesman, philosopher and botanist José Francisco Correia de Serra (1750–1823), a close friend of Sir Joseph Banks. Doryanthes excelsa has also inspired the naming of Doryanthes, the journal of history and heritage for Southern Sydney founded by Dharawal historian Les Bursill.
Source: Wikipedia
46 cm X 46 cm each
Acrylic on canvas
I love the page and thank you for your comments aboput our sacred sites.
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these are beautiful ! ihave seen photos of the plant--a huge bright red splurge of colour--on a fan of green spikes .these are yours? as usual your sense of colour is superb. did you also visit the sacred sites on ayers rock?there are some superb renditions of the aboriginal sacred crocodile! so much like the egyptian croc god! at some level cultures crisscross-makes you wonder what is there to fight about?
ReplyDeleteaboriginal google earth shot?
ReplyDeletethanx Amma... Steve!
ReplyDeleteI'd like to think of the Aborigines as very advanced people who had visions of Earth long before Google did... and yeah I too am amazed at the cross-connections!!
And thanx Les :)
ReplyDeletei love ur sense of colours.....ur so bloody confident and fearless!!
ReplyDeletethnx anon :)
ReplyDeletebeautiful paintings Dhiraj..very evocative of the Oz landscape our indigenous brothers wisdom and the view of the bush from the air....the colours of oz...and abstract at the same time...a great contribution to indian/australian relations. We will journey together to the Bungle Bungles one day and you will feel at home!
ReplyDeleteSo glad u liked em, Rog...
ReplyDeleteI really love the idea of 'the dreaming' and the kind of outlook it brings about... it's very humbling... like being in Brahma's dream... an eternal continuum (esp from where we are) where we're all small part actors...
look forward to Bungle Bungles :)
Love the latest work – the colours and feeling are so Oz, so happy that you were so inspired by our Aboriginal art and our unique native flora and landscape.
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