A selection of environmental art created from fallen branches, leaves and other native plants is exhibiting in Horsham’s main street. 

Minyip-based artist Rae Talbot’s ‘Fallen Leave’ is available for viewing at Redrock Books and Gallery until early next month. 

Talbot explained the different types of wood featured in the exhibition had been gathered on a yearly journey she enjoyed with her husband. 

“We live in Minyip, but we travel for six months of the year now that we are retired,” she said. 

“When I started to travel, I realised that I was getting bored very quickly, and I’ve always picked up leaves, plants or sticks, that’s how I started collecting.”

Talbot said the exhibition included a series of ‘journey sticks’ taken from as far away as Longreach in Queensland, but started and ended with two Buloke sticks sourced from Minyip. 

“I’m very passionate about protecting the Bulokes of the Wimmera because their ecosystem is very endangered,” she said. 

“Only three percent are left in the Wimmera, because in the early days when everybody was being settled here, Buloke trees meant good wheat country.”

Talbot said she had worked for 30 years in the field of preservation and considered herself an environmental artist. 

“Everything I do is about protecting the bush and the plants that occur in it,” she said. 

“We’ve had a wildlife shelter for 30 years as well, and that shelter depends on these ecosystems to survive.”

Other items in the exhibition include ‘spirit sticks’ made from local timber, foraged leaves printed on silk and prints of native plants. 

Talbot said she had used cyanotype printing, an image transferring process, to highlight the native plants. 

“These plants are normally very low to the ground, so people never normally see them out in the bush,” she said.

“I’m trying to educate people about how important it is to look down, not always to look up. 

“Lots of these plants now, there’s none left. 

“They’re not something you just see walking around, you have to look to find them.”

– Sean O’Connell

The entire November 29, 2023 edition of The Weekly Advertiser is available online. READ IT HERE!

The entire November 29, 2023 edition of AgLife is available online. READ IT HERE!