Robyn Bauer
Recent Drawings
These recent drawings from the "Exotica" - A Voyage to Terra Australis series will be shown at the Logan Regional Gallery in January 2009.
Robyn has been researching the early voyages to "New Holland" (as Australia was then known) in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, especially those of the French explorers Baudin and La Perouse. The eye of the artists trained in the western sensibility in botanical and topographical work met with the challenge of finding the new exotic flowers and animals of these groundbreaking voyages and depicting these wonders for those "back home". Robyn has combined the attention to detail of these early discovery drawings and the sense of awe and wonder that they provoked in their receptive audience of "Natural History" adherents of the 18th century for a new audience of 21st century conservationists.
The style is combines the traditonal red, black and white chalks of 17th century French drawings which give an appealing realistic sense of depth, and the high tech black pens of 21st century graphic art. The paper is specially prepared with the "light red" of the old masters.
The plant forms of Robyn's Garden of Eden and her ever present bird symbols find a new incarnation in these delightful small drawings.
The great wing beat (Owl )
Portal into the heavens (Major Mitchell Cockaroo)
Sailing calmly on...(Quail thrush and stenocarpus)
Caladrius spiral (pigeons)
These images are all available as signed Original Art Cards