Ok, so here’s the deal. Draw a flower – go on – just jot one down next to you on that rogue piece of paper sitting on the desk just there. Doesn’t matter if it’s pencil or pen, I’ll wait a moment…

Ok cool, now I’ll have a go… Here’s mine…

Does yours look anything like mine? I wonder? On my way home from Perth on Monday, I stopped off at a beautiful part of the country near a place called Badgingarra – you can see my vlog here (where I momentarily channel The Leyland Brothers) This area of heathlands is apparently some of the most diverse in the world. And now, at the beginning of spring, the flowers are just starting to come out to show off all their glory. As I was walking around and marvelling at the amazing intricate, delicate and vivid wildflowers at my feet, it suddenly occurred to me that I’ve been brainwashed by someone, somewhere (society? culture?) to draw flowers like the one I showed you in the beginning of this post. I mean, (and speaking from an Australian perspective here) there are not too many flowers that actually look like that are there? Gerbera perhaps? Daisy? But of all the amazing and wonderful native Australian flora, there’s few that come close. And given I’ve spent the better part of 37 years with native flowers in my sights, I’m absolutely amazed that I draw flowers the way I do. I mean, just look at these, aren’t they amazing…(please excuse the first one – I just can’t seem to load up the gallery without that pencil drawing jumping in there!)

So now, I’m challenging myself to look carefully at these beauties and try and re-program the way I think about flowers, and the images that conjure up in my mind when I think of that very word. I’m going to try and incorporate the real deal into my artwork, and not some stereotypical year-three-teacher-inspired version…

So how about you? Does this apply for you in your part of the world? Or am I the only one?? Perhaps there are other things that you draw/paint in a stereotypical way? I’d love to know what you think,

x Me