Visual Arts / Rendezvous: Notes from the  Botanic Gardens, M16 Art Space. Until September 28.  Reviewed by KERRY-ANNE COUSINS.

The Australian National Botanic Gardens is an important part of the life of our capital.

It provides, as the notes from the exhibition catalogue suggest, a bridge between the city and the natural environment. The ANBC is  a centre for scientific research and provides a haven for native plants and animals.

It is no surprise that many of the works in this exhibition focus on the paths and walks that take the visitor into its hidden byways. The ANBC also provides inspiration to artists like the four artists in this exhibition – Michael Desmond, Peta Jones, Bryn Desmond-Jones and Ossian Desmond-Jones. They are all from the same family and this is their fourth exhibition together. In 2023 they joined together for an exhibition focused on Black Mountain so this current exhibition is, as they have noted, a logical segue.

Bryn Desmond-Jones sets the scene at the entrance to the exhibition with a large wall mural called Rendezvous. Have you ever sat at an outside table at the Garden’s café and watched with bemusement as water dragons run around your feet? If so, you will relate to this clever and witty work that only uses black tape to describe and evoke the experience.

Michael Desmond’s small painting, You are here, introduces the visitor to the Gardens. In this series of attractive small gouaches, painted in evocative rather than descriptive colours, Desmond takes the viewer down the fern gully walk with its dense tropical foliage and small waterfall, painting it from various viewpoints.

In another series by Desmond, pottery shards are mounted like archaeological finds on small classical style wall plinths. Modelled on the black-figure style Greek vases, Desmond has replaced the ancient Greek imagery on the shards by contemporary images of birds and plants. Hopefully these animals and plants will not become part of the archaeology of the past preserved as we preserve Greek vases in museums.

Ossian Desmond-Jones has an interest in various photographic processes. Memorial Benches, is a series of moody black and white photographs taken of the memorial benches in the Gardens. The images beckon the viewer into their romantic melancholy  landscape illuminated by artful shafts of light. They demonstrate the soft velvet-like qualities attained by salt printing and the artist’s command of the technique.

Peta Jones takes a closer look at the flora of the Gardens. In a series of black and white watercolours and pastels on paper she investigates the leaves and seeds of plants defining their architectural structures and the beauty of their abstract shapes. Several works are notable  – a group of works using colour to define their branches and seeds and a bright little watercolour of Billy Button wildflowers.

These four artists have conveyed their love of the ANBC through observation, humour and artistic skill. The exhibition is a reminder of the pleasures of the Australian National Botanic Gardens and its potential for creative exploration.