About the exhibition

The making of the Offshoots collection is a five-year story about a working relationship between the artist, Tanks Arts Centre’s Curator and Cairns Botanic Gardens. Julie created the Offshoots series during a series of five consecutive artist’s residencies commencing in 2009. Her aim was to produce a florilegium of the Garden’s large botanic collection.

Offshoots consists of botanical drawings, etchings, paintings and mixed media artworks. Julie McEnerny’s technical skills as a botanical illustrator are matched only by her insight into the cultural and ecological significance of her subject matter and by her sheer dedication to her role as Cairns Botanic Gardens illustrator in residence. After five years on the Offshoots project, the body of work is substantial, fascinating and worthy to represent the diverse collection of plants at the Cairns Botanic Gardens. It is a fine representation of the diversity of contemporary and traditional botanic illustration techniques.

Artists

Julie McEnerny

Tour dates

Acknowledgements

Offshoots: A Florilegium from the Cairns Botanic Gardens was a travelling exhibition developed by Tanks Arts Centre in partnership with Cairns Botanic Gardens, toured by Museums & Galleries Queensland. This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Ministry for the Arts’ Visions of Australia program.