Merle previously did nursing then pottery. Her black lustred pots have been exhibited around Australia and she has work in private collection around the world. In 1990 she started Botanical Illustration classes with Dianne Emery through the Friends of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, specialising mainly in lichens, mosses and liverworts. The specimens are enlarged using a microscope and hand lens, so the viewer may see the details of these tiny plants that are not visible with one’s naked eye. She has also painted some of the flowering native plants and fruits. Merle has exhibited in each the Art of Botanical Illustration from 2000 to 2008 and again in the 2012 where she was awarded the CELIA ROSSER medal for her three exhibits and continuing her long term commitment to produce finely observed and expertly illustrated renditions of the overlooked flora such as lichens, mosses and liverworts. She has had work in several group exhibitions including Botanical Art at Karwarra in 2007, Canberra Botanical Exhibition in 2013 and Sydney’s Botanica 2013. The Royal Botanical Gardens Melbourne Inc bought her lichen painting in 2002 and a liverwort painting in 2006 for their State Collection. These two paintings along three other works of Merle’s were in the exhibition “HIDDEN IN PLAIN VIEW –THE FORGOTTEN FLORA” which travelled Australia for three years from 2007 through to 2009. In 2011 her work was included in the “ETERNAL ORDER IN NATURE” exhibition held in Domain House gallery, Melbourne.
Catalogue Number 89
Teloschistes chysopthalmus on Eucalyptus camaldulensis 'Lichen'
watercolour
460mm by 400mm
$1,175
