Fungi friends
28/7/2024
A few months ago I was feeling very disheartened with illustration. I was struggling to find any joy in creating so I decided it was time to find a new hobby. I started disappearing into the bush around Warrandyte to photograph fungi, befriend wombats and play around in the mud. It has been very hard for me living in the suburbs of Melbourne. I grew up in the wonderful tiny town of Pomonal where my family lived on 270 acres of bushland that backed onto the Grampians national park. I am not used to being surrounded by neighbours (not the human kind anyway), so being back in the trees with the birds and bugs has been an absolute joy and exactly what my creative spirit needed.
While out on one of my explorations I found a little group of fungi that looked like a family having a picnic. I could't pass on the opportunity to illustrated these charming characters. I then shared my creation with a local nature appreciation group on facebook. They loved my new friends and asked for more!
Now when I'm out and about photographing fungi, I'm looking for characters to add to my collection. I now have five finished pieces with 3 in the works and plans for a total of at least 12.
My hope is that I will be able to exhibition my fungi friends next year as well as making prints, postcards, stickers etc. I am having the best time meeting and illustrating my Fungi Friends. I hope you will like them too.
