Julie Holcombe | Eucalyptus Camfieldii, Heart-Leaved Stringybark | SOLD
Eucalyptus Camfieldii, Heart-Leaved Stringybark
52 x 73 cm
Watercolour and ink on paper
Timber box frame
SOLD
Eucalyptus camfieldii is endemic to the Sydney region although it is now rare. Only a small number of trees are known to still be in existence, all within the Sydney Basin.
It is a very unusual plant because of its extreme life strategy and low reproductive success, relying mostly on fire to propagate. Remarkably, if left undisturbed the trees can live for hundreds of years and develop thousands of stems joined by an underground root (lignotuber) that can grow to cover one hectare or more.
In 1920 Joseph Maiden named the tree in honour of Julius Camfield, an English botanist and gardener who lived and worked at the Royal Botanic Gardens in the Domain, Sydney.
Aboriginal name: Bai’ayli
Aboriginal uses: The stems of the tree were used for making spear shafts. The gum was extracted and used as a healing agent for wounds and cuts.
. . .
This painting was inspired by a very old tree at North Head Sanctuary Manly. In 2019, following the Botanica exhibition at the Lion Gate Lodge, it was selected for a satellite Botanica exhibition at the AGNSW Members’ Lounge.
Julie Holcombe (formerly Nettleton)
Julie has been a botanical artist since 2002 and for most of that time her work has focused on Australian native plants endemic to the Sydney region. Before that she was an interior designer and had her own design business in Paddington, Sydney.
Her work is held in The Florilegium Society Collection at the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, The Shirley Sherwood Collection London, The State Botanical Collection at the National Herbarium of Victoria and The Hunt Institute for Botanical Documention, Carnegie-Melon University Pittsburgh USA.
In 2016 Julie was awarded a Gold Medal and Best Painting in Show at the London Royal Horticultural Society's international botanical art show.
She has exhibited every year since 2006 at Botanica, by Foundation and Friends of The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney. In 2016 her work was exhibited with The Florilegium: Sydney’s Painted Garden at the Museum of Sydney, and in 2019 with Botanica at the Art Gallery of NSW. During 2019-2020 her work is being exhibited in The Shirley Sherwood Collection: Modern Masterpieces of Botanical Art, at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, London. Then in April 2020 her work will be exhibited again at The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney, in an exhibition called Botanic Endeavours to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the work of the botanists Banks and Solander who accompanied Captain James Cook on his historic voyage on the Endeavour in 1770.
Exhibitions
Drawn From Nature July 2017
Media
Sydney Morning Herald July 2017
