The Scrolls Illuminated

Illustrating Australian nature: illuminating The Scrolls

Description | The Story | About the Artist

Visitor Centre Gallery
16 May – 28 June 2012

A selection from five series of naturalistic watercolour paintings and preparatory sketches of Australian nature by Fiona Pfennigwerth, that are scanned and reproduced as borders in her recently published book The Scrolls Illuminated: an illuminating presentation of Solomon's Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther from the Bible.

Fiona sketched flora in the Gardens that appear in a number of the finished paintings, along with others from Mt Annan and Newcastle Region Botanic Gardens, Sea Acres National Park in Port Macquarie, and various other beautiful places.

The paintings and The Scrolls manuscripts were presented in two examination exhibitions for Fiona’s Honours in Natural History Illustration at the University of Newcastle and PhD, which she was awarded in 2009.

The series are:

• Illustrating (mainly) Sydney Basin flora: illuminating The Song (including the Cuttsia vibernia, Oxylobium scandens, and Sarsparilla  from the Gardens)
• Illustrating (mainly) New England harvest: illuminating Ruth (including Dianella flower and fruit from the Gardens)
• Illustrating the aftermath of bushfire in the Snowy Mountains: illuminating Lamentations
• Illustrating tidal mudflats, Port Stephens: illuminating Ecclesiastes
• Illustrating rainforest: illuminating Esther (including Plectranthus argentatus, Native lilac hibiscus (Alyogyne huelli), Mytella, Kreysigia multiflora, Orthosiphon aristatus, Prostanthora ovaliflora and Thelychiton kingianus, Native musk (Oleavia argophylla, Norfolk IUsland Wedding lily, Native resberry, Minchinberry and Lillypilly from the Gardens)

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The story behind the exhibition

I love the Australian bush in its many forms, and I love the excuse to experience it close-up, which drawing it gives me. And I love the medium of watercolour – its freshness and luminosity; its subtleness; the surprising interaction of pigment and water and paper. And I love reading Bible books as literature – their different styles and moods and purposes.

This project combines all of these loves, as I sought to reflect in each the subtle depths of the others. But I also wanted the paintings to stand alone as artworks.

There are five series of paintings, each largely from the one habitat and illuminating one of the Bible books, because in some way they reflect each other. So The Song is bordered by spring flowers; Ruth is decorated by images of barley harvest; Lamentations shows bushfire damage and regrowth; the ebb and flow of life on the tidal mudflats reflect Ecclesiastes; and for Esther, the lush but rank rainforest. ^ top

About the artist

For thirty years I pursued separately my interests in literature, theology and art. I love painting in watercolour, and being fascinated by the beauty and subtlety of the natural world, have exhibited works mainly on this theme. I have studied and worked in law; worked in magazine layout; wrote for a small newspaper; cooked for a student residential hall; raised two sons; and led many seminars teaching adults to read biblical books as literature. For seven years I studied (part-time and fulltime) Natural History Illustration at the University of Newcastle, a unique course in Australia, and one of a handful in the world.

I am now teaching casually at the University of Newcastle while beginning a Masters in Theology at Charles Sturt University with a view to producing a series of paintings that will illuminate John’s Gospel.

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