Gardenia Palmer

Artist Statement
The paintings of this exhibition started out as a tribute to the passing of my Mother, Jean. She was born in the Netherlands in the 1920s. As a young girl, she and her family went to live in Jakarta, Indonesia. My grandparents were Salvation Army missionaries. The family lived in idyllic splendour - surrounded by tropical forests teaming with exotic plants and flowers and the traditional beauty of Indonesian floral designs. At the age of 17, my Mother and family were imprisoned in Japanese war camps until released at the end of the Second World War. A few years later, my Mother met my Father, married, and I was born. Several years on, the three of us migrated to Perth, Western Australia. My earliest memories of my Mother were of her picking wild flowers in the grounds of the refugee camp - then, finding a used jar for her display. She had an amazing knowledge of flowers, and was constantly filling vases with floral arrangements of unusual designs and colours. These displays were a constant in our family home. This gift of hers was passed on to me and influenced what I did. All through my own life I, too, picked weeds, grasses, seedpods and flowers, simply ‘for beautiful’. Ever present, the wondrous shapes and designs needed to be drawn and studied; so began the experimentation. As an artist, I have enjoyed the extremes of colour, the boldness of flat print-like surfaces, daring to reinvent my techniques as the shapes evolve. I have photographed and collected exotic blooms for many years. I have drawn and reshaped the sculptural elements, dissected and manipulated their wondrous forms. This pursuit was a study for my work in textiles so it seemed quite natural to investigate and paint this show of flowers. When my Mother was dying I wanted to honour her life in full colour. Her love of flowers was so compelling that my tribute to her would have to be large, to encompass her and her huge, amazing life. So began the full-on germination of the paintings in this show, from the exotic stages of my Mother’s Life. ‘My Lady of Flowers.’