Postcard No 52: Life by the River
I popped over the road and down to the river’s edge to see if there was any new flotsom washed up. It’s quite interesting to see what turns up. There was something new but I’m saving that for another postcard.
The banana passionfruit that grows next to the small jetty is out in flower and looking very lovely. All shades of pink and mauve with little white highlights and pendulous, yellow, pollen laden stamens adding a bright contrast.
We found out last summer the fruit is truely awful but the flowers make up for this small defect.
It shouldn’t be growing there because it’s an escapee that belongs in a cultivated garden not on a wild riverbank.
The more I explore the river’s edge the more garden escapees and invasive weeds I find growing amongst the native species and in some cases crowding them out.
It’s hard to see how they can be erradicated. It seems to me the landscape along the river will continue to change as more weeds edge out the natives. Perhaps they’ll strike an equilibrium…I hope so anyway.
In the meantime I couldn’t help but paint the rogue passionfruit flowers. i worked loosely with acrylic gouache on a mid tone paper. It’s my usual 10x15cm postcard size.
Playing with a new pen is always fun.
I’m really loving using the white gel pen to add some calligraphic marks to these little postcards. I like the loose drawing quality it brings and the bright highlight notes. What do you think?
Lindy Whitton Studio 
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