We always play games in the car especially calling ‘spotto’ when someone is first to see a yellow car, truck, train, tractor, crane or whatever.
Over the years we have extended this to also include yellow plants and flowers, especially at this time of the year.
Some people have been surprised to hear a four- or five-year-old call ‘spotto forsythia’ but not us, she knows where to look.
This year the countryside has been very Aussie green and yellow after the rain so lots of ‘spotto wattle’, ‘spotto canola’ and paddock and hillsides of ‘spotto cape weed’. In Moss Vale there was ‘spotto tulips’ and ‘spotto poppies’. Someone called ‘spotto two golden Cyprus’, maybe near Yass.
Coming home we noticed that the wattles had mostly finished and the cape weed was not as bright. This led to lots of talk about how long certain plants flower, if cape weed is brighter in the morning or afternoon. We noticed several large patches of Paterson’s curse known by different names in other states, more talk.
The highlight of our trip was catching up with friends and family, swimming with porpoises in the bay and seeing pods of whales with their babies in the ocean.
Before we left I attended the opening of the first ever solo exhibition of Nick Baylart’s work at the Benalla Art Gallery’s pop-up shop in Bridge St.
Nick is young and has developed his own technique on thin mulberry leaf paper. He told me he paints what he sees when regularly driving in a triangle between Shepparton, Seymour and Benalla. His colours reflect the time of day and season. I’m pleased that I’m back in time to hear him say more about his art at the talk on Monday, October 5.
In the meantime a car load of us are off to the Australian native Gargarro Botanic Garden at Girgarre followed by seeing the 2026 Archibald Prize at the Shepparton Art Museum on the way home.
— Suzie Pearce
15°C