Artists of the Central Highlands

TRENTHAM'S Morag Turner hails originally from Lanarkshire, Scotland and it was her love of art that led to her completing a degree in textile design which then led to her moving to Australia. Today she’s inspired by the landscape and natural beauty she sees around her. But this well-established local artist is equally at home turning her talent to life drawing and portraiture, and to realism or abstractionism.

Eve: How do you describe your artistic style?

Morag: I work mainly in artistic realism, without trying to be photographic. I also do abstract, life drawing and have been practising pencil portraits.

Eve: How did you come to art?

Morag: As a child I loved creating and drawing. I won art prizes at school. I got my degree in textile design and built a career. That’s what got me to Australia. It was a desired profession. I didn’t practice art for over 25 years. Life got in the way, immigrating three times, being a working mum and a marriage break-up. The kids flew the nest and I got remarried. My husband is extremely supportive and encouraging. He is building me a studio and comes to all the exhibitions I enjoy when travelling.

Eve: Which artists have influenced your work?

Morag: Dali’s imagination and drawing skill and Van Gogh’s use of colour and movement. Like Monet, I use my garden as an endless source of subjects. I was lucky enough to visit his gardens in Giverny and stood under the wisteria on the bridge over the lily pond. A very special moment.

Melbourne artist Paul Borg taught me a lot when I attended his art school. One of the reasons we moved to Trentham was because of the art in the area. I am now privileged to be part of a local life drawing group. I draw alongside very inspirational artists Rose Wilson, Helen Cottle and Louise Otten. Great artists and lovely people.

Eve: What is your medium of choice?

Morag: Traditionally I’ve used watercolour, but more recently I love painting with oils and drawing with graphite. My dad always wanted me to use oils like he did, but I preferred watercolour.

On holiday here 10 years ago he left his oil paints behind and gave me a quick rundown before leaving for Scotland. My husband gifted me lessons with Paul Borg and I have never looked back. I like to experiment with different mediums in travel sketchbooks.

Eve: What is your subject matter of choice?

Morag: Nature, flowers, trees, landscape and the human form. Nature is so varied. No two trees are the same. I love drawing the human form as it’s so unique.

Eve: Have you ever worked in any other area besides your arts practice?

Morag: Yes, I’m a public servant. I work full-time. Roll on retirement.

Eve: What are you working on at the moment in your current arts practice?

Morag: I am putting together a collection of flowers. I am playing with the composition and using close-ups to give a different aspect, making the subject not obvious at first glance.

Eve: Do you like to play music when you create your art?

Morag: I like to listen to gentle, but not elevator, music. My own playlist or Spotify café list.

Eve: To date, what have been your career highlights as an artist?

Morag: Selling paintings. It’s a thrill when somebody wants my artwork in their home.

Eve: Do you have any exhibitions or special arts events coming up?

Morag: We are in the process of renovating my studio. I am planning an open studio for the Melbourne Cup weekend. I am considering an exhibition in a local gallery.

Eve: What do you think are the main challenges for practicing artists today?

Morag: The digital world. Photography, photoshop, CAD. Look what has happened to animation. Computers have taken over people skills.

with Eve Lamb

Eve: And the rewards?

Morag: I find art relaxing and de-stressing. I appreciate that many of the traditions in the art world no longer exist. I enjoy working from photographs. I experiment with mixing mediums - unlike the impressionists who were shunned for being different.

Image: Eve Lamb

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Autumn trees for dazzling colour

To many, the most beautiful time of the garden year is spring, the season of re-birth, when trees and shrubs burst forth with fresh new growth, flowers are blooming everywhere and air is fresh with their scent and the promise of bright new things to come.

But to me, the most colourful and dramatic time of year is now, when deciduous trees and shrubs everywhere turn on a dazzling display of coloured foliage before shedding their growth and shutting up shop for the winter.

A drive in almost any direction at this time of year will provide you with a neverending spectacle of varying shades of gold, brown, orange and red, and, if you are thinking about adding autumn colour to your garden, you will see them at their best.

The hybrid, ornamental grapevine (pictured above) vitis vinifera, has been let grow this year, to form a garland of colour in the adjacent silver pittosporum tenuifolium.

Deciduous trees, although bare in winter, have several benefits other than providing a once-in-the-year crop of leafy mulch. They also provide colour twice a year, autumn leaves, then spring flowers and in some cases, fruit.

One of the most striking of the autumn foliage trees is liquidambar - an upright conical tree with beautifully coloured, maple-like leaves that turn from a liquid gold to a deep purplish red. They vary in colour because they are generally grown from seed.

A hybrid form, L. Festeri, is a more compact, fast-growing tree of up to 10 metres that will always turn a deep reddish-bronze shade and will always holds its leaves right up until June.

One of my all time favourites, especially for smaller gardens, is the Washington Thorn (crataegus phaenopyrum).

A beautiful, compact small tree that will grow to approximately five metres high, this is a show off for most of the year for as well as its beautifully coloured red and orange autumn foliage, it also has masses of small white flowers in the spring followed in summer by clusters of small scarlet berries that will hang right through until the following spring.

One of my favourites, a most useful and rewarding autumn-foliaged tree that will grow under any conditions and provide interest and colour for almost every month of the year is the golden rain tree, koelreuteria paniculata.

Apart from any other attribute, koelreuteria is the tree that inspired the Willow pattern chinaware design so known and loved throughout the world and is a beautifully shaped tree, growing up to five metres high.

During spring the tree is covered with long, gracefully sweeping panicles of fine, golden-yellow blooms. In summer these form large seed pods that are themselves a deep old-gold colour, these remain to colour the tree until winter. In autumn the foliage attains a deep golden-yellow colouring before falling.

Koelreuteria is one of the most resistant trees to strongly alkaline soils and will withstand hot, dry winds and long periods of drought. In fact, it will thrive practically anywhere.

For larger gardens in almost any climate, where height or size are no problem, the ash twins - the golden fraxinus excelsior aurea and fraxinus raywoodii or claret ash, which, as its name implies, turns to a deep reddish colour in the autumn.

Either or both are so perfect for creating a shady retreat that they are used extensively as street or park trees almost everywhere, indicating their ability to thrive in almost any situation. Got