My travels lead me far and wide around the globe in search of the elusive botanical illustration.  No stone is left unturned in these journeys through the Internet web of archives from distant lands.  Fortunately my guide is gardener’s Latin, the universal plant names that I recognize no matter what the language of origin for the digital archive. 

But when it comes to Australian plants I’m all thumbs.  Sure, I get the eucalyptus and a few grevilleas, but this island continent’s plant species evolved in isolation with their own unique array of bewildering genera.  That’s what makes the Australian Botanic Gardens archive so fascinating.  Every click is a new and never before seen plant in its own original artistic presentation.

Here Brunonia serica is painted by the Austrian master, Ferdinand Bauer (1760-1826),  excerpted from Illustraciones Florae Novae Hollandiae, (Floral Illustrations of New Holland) published in 1813.  This exceptional artist’s skill is shown in the details of the plants minute structures at the bottom of the larger central painting. 

The long list of Australian illustrations varies over many artists and the site features a little backgrounder on each.  This gives the images themselves a wide variety of characters depending on the individual styles.  Some are as old as Bauer’s and some are by still living artists so you get a great cross section.

This is just one of dozens of fabulous prints in the archive found today at: http://www.anbg.gov.au/gallery/colour.html

Save illustrations directly from this site to create personalized botanical cards and digital crafts for gift and home.  It’s just one of many of my favorite sources of images and craft ideas detailed in my new FREE eBook available right now at www.MoPlants.com:

Online Botanical Illustrations: A Treasure Trove of Free Images for Digital Crafts

Remember:  Even if you’re not a gardener or a crafter, browsing online archives for beautiful antique flower pictures is great fun for a dull winter day!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 26th, 2006 at 10:24 am and is filed under Crafts, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.