Julie Holcombe | Maiden’s Palm
Maiden’s Palm (Pritchardia maideniana )
Watercolour on paper
60 x 45 cm
Pritchardia maideniana, commonly known as Maiden’s Palm, is a plant endemic to Hawaii. It was brought to the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney around the beginning of the nineteenth century by Joseph Maiden, director of the Gardens from 1896 – 1924 and in 1913 was named in his honour.
Sadly because of changes in land use and feral animals in Hawaii, the species has been decimated. For about one hundred years it was thought that this plant was extinct in the wild with only the collected specimens surviving. But a few tiny populations recently discovered are thought could be the genus Pritchardia.
The palm tree depicted in this painting grows in the Royal Botanic Gardens in the Domain near the Gardens Restaurant. Hence the ibis makes an appearance.
$4750
BIO
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
