The Garden Curator

Garden designer | Landscape designer | Landscape illustrator

Illustrations by The Garden Curator


Landscape portraiture, estate cartography, garden mapping and aerial illustration are all terms that could be used to describe the landscape artworks Colleen produces.

 

Green leaf illustration by Colleen Southwell

Crafted using pencil, ink and watercolour on premium papers, these finely detailed “birds-eye” representations of her client’s garden or property uniquely combine horticultural knowledge with the artistry required for detailed illustration.

Each individual piece is drawn to scale and tailored to the style and character of the property and those who inhabit it. As directed by her client, the work may include a cartouche, elevation illustrations, labelling or a myriad of other effects. Each result is a layered and sometimes whimsical artwork, through which the features of the landscape are captured and commemorated.

Commissions are taken to illustrate private gardens, commercial premises such as cellar doors and guest houses, public landscapes and rural properties.

 

  • Something a little different, soon to fly off to my exhibition, The Shadow of Wings @sukihugh_gallery in Bungendore NSW from 21 March to 26 April. Not long now! ...more in stories😊
  • The front gate. The view through the windscreen arriving home from early morning runs to kids sport training today, there are benefits to rising early!
  • Just a glimpse, all will be revealed. Nearly ready for The Shadow of Wings @sukihugh_gallery ....just 4 weeks away and the countdown is on!
  • Old, tired, tattered.  Words that may conjure a sad picture, though the things to which they are applied are often the most beautiful. I picked up three aged metal trunks from @thebowermillthorpe recently, unable to resist their timeworn patina and imagined history.  These bruised and grazed vessels aren’t simply objects, they are the holders of stories.  Whose hands rested on them? What did they enclose? Where did they travel? In the garden too, time is the greatest ingredient. Sometimes it races, at others it lingers, though always more akin to a long meander than a sprint and best enjoyed when soaking up the scenery along the way.  Just like aged roses, often lovelier than their younger selves, age gives permission to relax, billow and mellow. Time…just…is. With it comes a richness that cannot be manufactured, the reward for patience and slow observation. The next Garden Curator newsletter is evolving, slowly, and after a particularly busy period it is a reflection upon time, “slow” garden and art making.  You are welcome to wander and pause with us, just amble on over to the link via my bio to sign up for the next letter.  It’ll arrive in a week or so, unfortunately not via snail mail, rather into your email inbox. See you there.☺
  • Such a thrill to find out last night that I've made it onto the @beautifulbizarremagazine list of the top 100 paper artists on insta! The list includes extraordinary artists from across the world, so to be among them is a wonderful surprise, so unexpected and humbling! Huge thanks to the magazine❤.
  • There's been little action in the vege patch this summer, though I managed a batch of pickled beetroot, and the table is supplied with good old fashioned zucchini slice (the one that appears in most community group cook books and on ram sale or school fundraiser catering tables). I have kept the perennials going, the asparagus and rhubarb, and potatoes have continued to multiply nestled under thick blankets of hay - I haven't got around to planting new ones for years, they just keep rolling on from one year to the next in successive generations. Harvesting them is like a mixed bag of lollies, an odd bunch and you never know what will be in the bag. The blotchy cream and pink King Edwards are our favourite. Delicious and worth seeking out. The last few carrots and dill have exploded in seedy umbels, and the basil is bolting too. I must get onto a stash of pesto for the freezer, perfect for quick dinners on winter nights late home. I'm keen to find and plant more perennial vegetables in the patch, the cut and come again things that keep rolling on for a full year and more with little fuss. Any suggestions on those you've had success with?
  • Another day in the studio, serenaded by the sound of the rain soaked grass growing outside. I'm sure I can hear it, a beautiful song. So many responses and messages to my last post querying a name for the feeling experienced when stuck inside, while wanting desperately to be out in the great wide open. Cabin fever, torture, frustration, yearning, even outinaphobia and dedirousoutdoorsiness. Whatever the title, isn't it always the way that the loveliest of days are those that must be spent indoors, often doing the tedious things, accounts, cleaning.... And of course our resident bird, Whistling Dick, sits and sings on the verandah railing, looking through the studio door, calling and almost taunting. On the upside though, the works for my upcoming show are coming together well with the deadline for completion only a week away. Happy days!