BENALLA MURALS

At the weekend we visited Canberra and on the way there we had a stop in Benalla. This is a small city located on the Broken River in the High Country north-eastern region of Victoria, Australia, about 188 kilometres north east of the state capital Melbourne. At the 2011 census the population was 9,328. It is the administrative centre for the Rural City of Benalla local government area.

We came across a trio of large portrait murals, painted side by side on the brick walls of the SEC building closest to Bridge St. It was easy to recognise the one by Rone, a well-known Melbourne street artist who has painted many murals in Melbourne and elsewhere. His trade mark is faces of women executed in a very realistic, chic style.

It turns out that Benalla hosted a street art fest from Friday the 27th until Sunday the 29th of March, when local and international street artists transformed 13 walls for the "Wall to Wall Festival". Wall to Wall is the first annual street art festival in Benalla, curated by Juddy Roller with the support of the Benalla Street Art Committee. The festival is all about rejuvenating the regional town and what better way to do is is to invite some big names in the street art world to paint bomb the walls out of Benalla. The line up for the three day festival includes: Adnate, Askew, Choq, Deams, Dvate, Ears, Guido Van Helten, Slicer, Rashe, Rone, Shwan Lu and Sirum.

The image by Guido Van Helten is painted from the photo of Ned Kelly’s nephew standing at the Kelly homestead in Greta West, just outside of Benalla in 1922. The wall in the picture is covered with carved initials. They included K.K., A.S., J.B., N.K., D.K., S.H., carved by Kate, Sherritt, Joe Byrne, Dan & Ned and Steve Hart, The Kelly gang and Family. Van Helten calls this image "Nostalgia I".

The central image is by Matt Adnate, an Australian painter who has established himself as a Street-Portrait artist. His realistic style is the signature to his work, using spray paint as his main medium. This stunning image of an Asian child clearly stands out for me as the pick of the three portraits here.

The last image by Rone is entitled "Darcy". This is the portrait of local Hides Bakery's waitress Darcy Spinks. Rone has given her the glamour treatment, allowing her to join his bevy of beauties of his past work.

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,

and also part of the Monday Murals meme,

and also part of the Blue Monday meme.

Benalla Main Street

The three portraits

Guido Van Helten's "Nostalgia I"

1920s Photo of Ned Kelly's nephew used for portrait above

Matt Adnate's portrait of Asian Girl

Rone's portrait of "Darcy"

The real Darcy Spinks!

Unfortunately we did not have time to explore more of the murals in Benalla, but there is a video relating to the "Wall to Wall Festival" you can see here:

BLACK SWAN

This post is part of the Saturday Silhouettes meme,
and also part of the Weekend Reflections meme,
and also part of the Saturday Critters meme,
and also part of the Camera Critters meme.

SATURDAY SILHOUETTES #13

Welcome to the Saturday Silhouettes meme! This is a weekly meme that looks at SILHOUETTES in photography.

SILHOUETTE |ˌsɪlʊˈɛt| noun: The dark shape and outline of someone or something visible in restricted light against a brighter background.
ORIGIN - late 18th century: Named (although the reason remains uncertain) after Étienne de Silhouette (1709–67), French author and politician.

This post is also part of the Skywatch Friday meme.

BLUEBELLS

Hyacinthoides hispanica (syn. Endymion hispanicus or Scilla hispanica), the Spanish bluebell, is a spring-flowering bulbous perennial native to the Iberian Peninsula. It is one of around 11 species in the genus Hyacinthoides, others including the common bluebell (Hyacinthoides non-scripta) in northwestern Europe, and the Italian bluebell (Hyacinthoides italica) further east in the Mediterranean region. It is distinguished from the common bluebell by its paler, larger blue flowers, more erect flower stem (raceme), broader leaves, blue anthers (where the common bluebell has creamy-white ones) and little or no scent compared to the strong fragrant scent of the northern species. The Spanish bluebell is also cultivated as a garden plant, and several named cultivars exist with flowers in various shades of white, pink and blue.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme,
and also part of the Friday Greens meme.

WALLFLOWERS

Erysimum cheiri syn. Cheiranthus cheiri (common name "wallflower") is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae (Cruciferae), native to Europe but widespread as an introduced species elsewhere. It is also widely cultivated as a garden plant.

This is a herbaceous perennial, often grown as a biennial, with one or more highly branching stems reaching heights of 15–80 cm. The leaves are generally narrow and pointed and may be up to 20 cm long. The top of the stem is occupied by a club-shaped inflorescence of strongly scented flowers. Each flower has purplish-green sepals and rounded petals which are two to three cm long and in shades of bright yellows to reds and purples. The flowers fall away to leave long fruits which are narrow, hairy siliques several cm in length.

This is a popular ornamental plant, widely cultivated for its abundant, fragrant flowers in spring. Many cultivars have been developed, in shades of yellow, orange, red, maroon, purple, brown, white and cream. It associates well in bedding schemes with other spring flowers such as tulips and forget-me-nots. It is usually grown as a biennial, sown one year to flower the next, and then discarded. This is partly because of its tendency to grow spindly and leggy during its second year, but more importantly its susceptibility to infections such as clubroot.

This post is part of the Floral Friday Fotos meme.

JABIRU

Jabiru is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia. It was originally built in 1982 as a closed town to house the community living at Jabiru East near the Ranger Uranium Mine eight kilometres away. Both the mine and the town are completely surrounded by Kakadu National Park. At the 2006 census, Jabiru had a population of 1,135. Jabiru Township is thirteen square kilometres in size. The town is owned as freehold by the Director of National Parks and Wildlife, from which a head lease is held by the Jabiru Town Development Authority (JTDA). The JTDA subleases to the mining company, government agencies and private business. The head lease expires in 2021.

The town is named after the bird, Jabiru, or more correctly, the black-necked stork (Ephippiorhynchus asiaticus), which is a tall long-necked wading bird in the stork family. It is a resident species across South and Southeast Asia with a disjunct population in Australia. It lives in wetland habitats where it forages for a wide range of animal prey. Adult birds of both sexes have a heavy bill and are patterned in white and glossy blacks, but the sexes differ in the colour of the iris (male brown and female yellow). In Australia, it is called a jabiru although that name refers to a stork species found in the Americas.

In Jabiru, there is a curious hotel, the Mercure Kakadu Crocodile Hotel, which is located on the eastern side of Kakadu National Park. The unique shape of the hotel reflects the large number of crocodiles found in this National Park. The hotel is a 2 ½ hour drive from Darwin and makes an ideal base to explore Ubirr & Nourlangie rock art galleries and the towering escarpment of Arnhem Land.

This post is part of the Wednesday Waters meme,

and also part of the Waterworld Wednesday meme,

and also part of the Outdoor Wednesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme,
and also part of the ABC Wednesday meme.

POMELO

Citrus maxima (or Citrus grandis - Common names: Pomelo, pummelo, pommelo, pamplemousse, or shaddock) is a natural (non-hybrid) citrus fruit, with the appearance of a big grapefruit, native to South and Southeast Asia.

The fruit tastes like a sweet, mild grapefruit (which is itself believed to be a hybrid of Citrus maxima and the orange), though the typical pomelo is much larger than the grapefruit. It has none, or very little, of the common grapefruit's bitterness, but the enveloping membranous material around the segments is bitter, considered inedible, and thus is usually discarded. The peel is sometimes used to make marmalade, can be candied, and is sometimes dipped in chocolate. In Brazil, the thick skin is often used for making a sweet conserve, while the middle is discarded. Pomelos are often eaten in Asia during the mid-autumn festival or mooncake festival.

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Our World Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Ruby Tuesday meme,
and also part of the Wordless Wednesday meme.

HOMETIME

Driving home from work as the sun sets...

This post is part of the Monday Mellow Yellows meme,
and also part of the Saturday Silhouettes meme.

PIG FACE

Carpobrotus rossii, commonly known as karkalla or pig face (Western Australia), is a succulent coastal groundcover plant native to southern Australia. Karkalla leaves are succulent, 3.5–10 cm long and 1 cm, and curved or rarely straight. The flowers are light purple in colour, and 6 cm wide. The globular purplish red fruit is about 2.5 cm long and 1.5 cm wide.

The species occurs in the states of Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria. It can be found year-round in large patches covering sand dunes close to the ocean, due to its hardy nature and salt resistance. Aboriginal people eat the fruit traditionally, fresh and dried. The salty leaves were also reported to have been eaten with meat. Extracts of the plant have significant in vitro antioxidant, antiplatelet, and anti-inflammatory activity.

This post is part of the Pink Saturday meme,
and also part of the I Heart Macros meme,
and also part of the Macro Monday meme.

SATURDAY SILHOUETTES #12

Welcome to the Saturday Silhouettes meme! This is a weekly meme that looks at SILHOUETTES in photography.

SILHOUETTE |ˌsɪlʊˈɛt| noun: The dark shape and outline of someone or something visible in restricted light against a brighter background.
ORIGIN - late 18th century: Named (although the reason remains uncertain) after Étienne de Silhouette (1709–67), French author and politician.

This post is also part of the Skywatch Friday meme,
and also part of the Saturday Critters meme.