Wednesday 27th March
It was full house at the afternoon tea as Fran Lee gave a superb presentation about her Significant Trees of Banyule exhibition. Fran gave the background to her interest in indigenous and native trees in her local area. She said that the City of Banyule was one of the few councils who had a register of the significant trees growing in the area. This encouraged her to seek out the trees and make portraits of some of her favourite ones including a sugar gum, manna gum and red ironbarks. She noted how important it was to retain these trees as some were more than 400 years old and were still the habitat of many native birds. Residents and visitors were able to place the trees on maps she handed out also and it’s hoped they will be able to visit them all soon. She also detailed the process of painting particularly the leaves of the gum leaves, putting layer up on layer of paint to reflect the foliage of the trees. She also prepares her own paints and canvases so the whole process is very time consuming. We were very pleased to welcome Councillor Tom Melican who was taken on a short tour of the facility afterwards.
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