The Colour of Eucalyptus: Australian National Botanical Gardens, 2017

Sally Blake’s solo exhibition at the Australian National Botanical Gardens (ANBG) Gallery, The Colour of Eucalyptus features textile, basket and paper-based works that have arisen from her eucalyptus dye research undertaken at the ANBG. Blake uses her sensitivity with materials to create artworks that explore these dyes on a range of natural fibres and threads.

 During the project she recorded the colours from the leaves of 230 and the bark from 100 eucalypt species. Each dye has been recorded on a small pieced sampler made from 7 different fabrics, as each fabric shows the dyes uniquely. Together these samplers create one of Blake’s Dye Diaries. This is her 4th to date and each explores a different environment. The leaves which create these wonderful dyes are also highlighted in pressed leaf arrangements on paper. Three leaves from each plant have been glued to paper to create large visual records of the leaves which supplied each dye.

 Small baskets, Hidden Mysteries have been made using a range of threads, each woven from the colours of one eucalypt species. Using plant dyes is a mysterious process emerging between the plant materials and human intervention. Many eucalypts give unexpected results such as bright oranges and reds on wool. Blake is also exhibiting her Eucalyptus Mantle works. She came to think of eucalypts as a mantle cloaking the country, their roots holding the soils and their leaves and branches providing habitat and shade. The Mantle works are made from the thousands of colours created on linen, wool and silk dyed during the project. The pattern references weave structures that might be used for a cloth mantle.

 This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body.

Held Mysteries. Copper wire, eucalyptus dyed wool, silk and hemp

Pressed leaf drawings

Held Mysteries. Copper wire, eucalyptus dyed wool, silk and hemp

Dye Diary (eucalyptus leaves). Stitched eucalyptus-dyed wool, silk and linen

Dye Diary )Eucalyptus Bark). Eucalyptus-dyed wool, silk and linen

Exhibition view

Eucalyptus Mantles 1 - 3. Pressed eucalyptus leaves and eucalyptus dyed wool, silk and linen on paper. 56 x 76 cm

Eucalyptus Mantle (E. bridgesiana leaves). Eucalyptus dyed wool, silk and linen on paper

Eucalyptus Mantle (E. macrorhyncha leaves), 2017. Eucalyptus dyed wool, silk and linen on paper

Eucalyptus Mantle (E. mellidora leaves). Eucalyptus dyed wool, silk and linen on paper

Eucalyptus Mantle (E. bridgesiana). Eucalyptus dyed wool, silk and linen on paper