It could be a shell mandala, a rock tower or an arrangement of leaves. However nature inspires you, we want to see it. As we head into another month of lockdown, 2515 magazine and Austinmer art teacher Imogen Ross are collaborating on a nature art challenge. We’re inviting Illawarra children of all ages to get creative outdoors, photograph the result and send it to us.

For many of us, surviving a lockdown means trying to get the kids out into nature as often as we can. Luckily we are surrounded by forests, native bush and a national park with ocean walks, open parks and hidden laneways to explore.

To give your family a challenge during a walk, we encourage you to make art in the wild. Internationally renowned artists like British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy, Australian environmental art pioneer John Davis and our own local artists Lizzie Buckmaster-Dove and Stephen Hamper regularly incorporate found objects in situ on location to create sculptures, photographing their eventual decomposition back into the earth and sea. Our diverse Illawarra environments gives us an endless supply of materials to find and use – both natural and man-made. The challenge is to ‘see’ what you can create with them, in your own unique style.

Well-known for his giant interwoven rock and balanced stone architectural forms, Goldsworthy uses such materials as brightly coloured flowers, icicles, leaves, mud, pinecones, snow, stone, twigs, and thorns. He has been quoted as saying, "I think it's incredibly brave to be working with flowers and leaves and petals. But I have to: I can't edit the materials I work with. My remit is to work with nature as a whole.”

Photography plays a crucial role in his art due to its often ephemeral and transient state. According to Goldsworthy, "Each work grows, stays, decays – integral parts of a cycle which the photograph shows at its heights, marking the moment when the work is most alive. There is an intensity about a work at its peak that I hope is expressed in the image. Process and decay are implicit.”

Locals often see the work of Wombarra sculptor Stephen Hamper on the tide lines of the northern Illawarra, slowly getting smaller and smaller until the ocean waves reclaim them. He never signs his name or leaves evidence of his being there apart from the strange totem-like piles of balanced rocks. It is his ‘gift’ to the community of beach walkers and seagulls that wander around the rock platforms of the northern suburbs.

Rock balancing has also been described as a type of problem solving, and some artists consider it as a skill in awareness. Wikipedia's definition reads: "Essentially, it involves placing some combination of rock or stone in arrangements which require patience and sensitivity to generate, and which appear to be physically impossible while actually being only highly improbable."

Coledale artist Lizzie Buckmaster Dove's ongoing investigation into sense of place, embodied mapping and connection often uses the Coledale sea pool and rock shelf as catalyst. 

“As I walk the Illawarra shoreline, collected coal pebbles mark my hands black. When pocketed they knock together, remembering the music they made when dancing on the ebb and flow tide,” she writes.

"In High Tide New Moon 7 April 2019 pebbles are arranged in the shape of an antique lace doily, echoing the overlay of one culture upon another. The diameter of the circle is the same as the highest tide occurring on the new moon within the exhibition period.”

Meanwhile, in Stanwell Park, the legacy of sculptor Gaby Porter, the former owner of Wombarra Sculpture Garden, lives on.

Lining the bush track from Stanwell Park kiosk up to Stanwell Avenue are giant bird’s nests woven with stalks of lantana, senna and ochna. All terrible invasive weeds choking our rainforest, now reinvented as bush sculpture. 

Inside the nests are porcelain eggs featuring the works of great painters – think Van Gogh’s sunflowers and Picasso’s bulls. 

The open-air art show is curated by Banksia Bush Care founder Kieran Tapsell, who fires the eggs in a kiln in the backyard of his home on Stanwell Avenue and then shares them with the community to decorate. 

Recent additions include eggs the size of an emu’s painted by Stanwell Park Preschool children (Kieran reckons their work bears a striking resemblance to the work of Archibald winner John Olsen). They are part of the Modern Art Tributes on Eggs (MATE) Exhibition. 

After decades of work, tonnes of weeds have been cleared and about 1400 native trees planted. Banksia Bush Care has become a local treasure – not only is it a rainforest haven, it’s a community art project loved by residents of all ages.

Let these environmental artists inspire you on your own walks; to hone your eyes, to see beauty in the most mundane objects and ignite your imaginations. 

Send us a photograph of your works and a location if safe to do so. Other local readers may wish to find your artworks before they are reclaimed back into nature. Though they might be incorporated into your art works, please do not leave any plastic or rubbish items in the landscape and always dispose of them thoughtfully. 

The beauty of this kind of eco-art is that it can stay in the landscape and you do not have to take it home.

Another rule: don’t break it to make it. If a flower falls on the ground, lovely. If it’s still on the bush, please leave it there.

PS: For those who really DO like to take the leaves home, here is a fun idea  from Debbie Chapman, founder of One Little Project to to do with littlies.

2515 MAG'S ART IN THE WILD

NEED TO KNOW

It’s not a competition; it’s a challenge. We’ll publish all submissions on our website and socials and a few favourites in the next edition of 2515 Coast News. You’re welcome to include your name, age, school or suburb. And, of course, the title of your work. Send your photos to editor@2515mag.com.au 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Imogen Ross is a local artist who specialises in working imaginatively with her community around environmental sustainability, repurposing household objects and reducing the amount of waste we generate. Imogen runs Go Create upcycling and after-school workshops in the 2515 area. To invite Imogen to your school, community group or private event to deliver creative upcycling craft workshops, please email imogenross@yahoo.com.au