The home block with Bali flags.
This past weekend we visited the Artist’s Retreat Open Garden and what a treat it was. Some gardens are all about the gardens, others the gardens+ambience and this one was the garden+ art.
This Grevillea pteridifolia was in full flower even though it had been blown over in a storm, and there were parrots in it and the surrounding trees.
We really focused on the house block (the whole property is 105 acres!) partly because we didn’t have a lot of time but mainly because we got so sidetracked by the beautiful art in the artist’s workshop and placed around the garden. All of the art was made by local Northern Territory artists including the garden owner, Jasmine Jan.
Don’t you love the punchy colours in these fish?!
It would be such a delightful place to live with the sound of bird calls everywhere.
Among the beautiful artworks I loved the simplicity of the cooking pots in the open-air fire pit near the billabong.
There is a huge billabong which would be quite spectacular in the Wet Season, or later in the Dry when there are yet more birds around.
Just imagine how your creativity would soar working in this artist’s gallery overlooking the billabong.
What a pleasure our Top End Open Gardens are, and this one’s artworks added another dimension as well. I’m mindful of privacy and artistic copyright so I’ve limited the images I’m uploading but I’m sure you’ll see what I mean. It makes you want to rush out and add art to your own garden.
Isn’t the colour contrast spectacular.
Isn’t this a beautiful bird-bath? The artist was Andrea McKey.
And so you could do just that there were paintings and various artworks available for sale, plus the opportunity to watch the artists working on glass beads. I’ve been flirting with doing a course for a while and I think this may have tipped the scales.
Glass bead making display.
Here is a web link for another of the artists, Andrea McKey and Michelle Burgoine.
. Do go and have a look at the artists’ work on their websites.
