Andrew Carr

My first foray into art started at a community centre in Bunbury with Penny Elliot. From these classes, I realised that detail was my thing. On a visit to Melbourne, I happened upon an exhibition of botanical art and immediately saw that this is what I wanted to do. My background is in engineering so the combination of detail and scientific accuracy made perfect sense. Not long after, I was fortunate enough to move to Melbourne and enrolled in classes with Dianne Emery.

Dianne’s classes were great because we were given instructions on a wide range of techniques and media. The emphasis was on watercolour however I prefer working with graphite because I find it very calming, relaxing and stress free, almost meditative.

My current topic is to draw all the species in the Hadrotes group of eucalypts. I was attracted to this group by the gumnuts which typically form a cluster that stay attached to the tree for a considerable amount of time. The developing buds are also very unusual and interesting.