The Mallee Institute
A place for photography, natural history, essential oils, art, exploration, literature and ideas… inspired by the South Australian mallee
Photography: through a mallee lens
The mallee captures and holds light in a certain way. Landscapes, animal studies, a twist of bark, a scrap of lichen, sunsets and moonshadows are all subjects for the mallee lens. I use three or four cameras: a Nikon 950p with 83x zoom, an Olympus Tough with microscopic function, an i-phone, and a Reconyx motion-detector camera for elusive wildlife. So far, these images are unsorted and uncaptioned…
Making art in the mallee, from the mallee itself…
The Longicorn Series
These artworks are based on graphite rubbings of distinctive insect trails on ancient mallee timber, looping across the surface of fallen logs and branches. The original ‘artists’ are the soft-bodied, iron-jawed grubs of the Longicorn beetle genus. The grubs send up to a year making their tracery of engravings, before they metamorphose into adult beetles and emerge into the light.
When I find these designs among fallen logs and branches in the mallee forests I make graphite rubbings on paper. Then I apply watercolour paints which I brew from the leaves of particular mallee plants. These include quandong, leafless cherry, sandalwood, bluebush, and eucalypts. I begin painting, accentuating the designs which the insects have made. As shapes and trajectories come into focus, the ancient insect tracery begins to merge with the human aesthetic.
During August 2024, I am participating in the South Australian Living Artists (SALA) festival, showing 22 works from my Longicorn Series at Saxon Rudduck’s small gallery in Norwood, together with Saxon’s quirky and elegant furniture and Annie Rudduck’s fine paintings on glass.
Below are a few examples from the Longicorn Series.
Philip Jones, August 2024
