Wallace, Ian (? - ?)

Began drawing in the 1960s. Later bought a sketch pad, a couple of pencils and a kneadable rubber eraser and started drawing simple subjects such as arum lilies, bulrushes and various leaves,he really enjoyed drawing leaves.

From these simple subjects he moved towards flowers, camelias, rhododendrons, petunias and difficult daffodils. His next subjects were orchids. He had many ground orchids in his area, Pterostylis, Caladenia and Diuris. These were his first challenge of fine botanical drawing and he thoroughly enjoyed the detailed work.

An artist friend suggested he try watercolors. In due course he bought a few tubes of watercolors and quickly found the green he squeezed from the tube was nothing like the leaf color he needed, so he started mixing colors and learning.

He never had any lessons in art so, after nearly 20 years, he was still doing just that.

When he left his orchard east of Melbourne and settled in Paynesville on the Gippsland Lakes in Victoria’s east, where many banksias grow, he attempted painting a few local banksias but nothing serious. Trips to the north coast of New South Wales introduced him to several more species. By then he was becoming really interested in painting banksias. He painted my first serious Banksia serrata and exhibited it at a Rotary Club exhibition at Lakes Entrance in Victoria. The judge was Charles Mc Cubbin, the artist, who awarded a Highly Commended for his work. This encouraged him to finish the four local species in Gippsland.

He then attempted the spectacular banksias of Western Australia. Hundreds of hours of painting have been a huge challenge, full of interest, and sometimes disappointment, but finally a great sense of achievement and satisfaction. He says he will always be painting banksias, "when I look over my work I can see improvements needed on some layouts, more details in others and better samples needed for some - all part of the addiction".

Examples of artwork:

Banksia burdettii
Banksia menziesii

Source: Extracted from: http://www.ianwallacebanksias.com.au/about-the-artist/
Portrait Photo: Extracted from: website above