Willow's Aussie Cousin

'Willow’s Aussie Cousin' playfully reimagines the classic weeping willow in a uniquely Australian landscape. This work blends stylised, decorative elements with a subtle narrative quality—evoking both nostalgia and whimsy. Two black cockatoos drift through a dreamlike sky, while undulating forms of native plants and abstracted terrain echo traditional Asian landscape motifs through a contemporary lens. This piece is part of an ongoing exploration of cultural crossover, memory, and place.

The Australian colour palette of this piece works well with a neutral interior - injecting a subtle but bold flash of colour to a white wall - as you can see in the styled photos, the painting's colour pallette features blue greys, eucalyptus greens, teals, and of course that rich earthy orange/pink soil colour ubiquitous to the landscape here once you travel inland a bit.

Painted on to very thick textured watercolour paper, this work is sold unframed and will be sent flat sandwiched between to very thick boards. The gorgeous paper is too thick to roll. If you would like to receive the work already framed, please select the framing option when you check out.

Follow

Floriosa is the botanical painting practice of Australian artist Sally Browne.
I've been making art for as long as I can remember. What was meant to be a one-year trip from the UK to Sydney in 1994 somehow became a permanent move, and Australia has been home ever since.
Much of my work begins outdoors. I love wandering through suburban streets noticing flowering trees, plants spilling over fences, unexpected colour combinations and the small details that most of us walk straight past. I often come home with armfuls of flowers, seedpods and odd little cuttings that eventually find their way into my paintings.

Although my work begins with observation, it rarely stays there. A vase of flowers, a flowering gum or a bird perched in the garden might provide the starting point, but colour, memory and imagination soon take over. I'm less interested in painting a particular flower than in capturing the feeling of being surrounded by nature.

Before becoming a full-time artist in 2015, I worked in graphic design, surface pattern and printmaking, experiences that continue to influence my love of colour, rhythm and composition. I'm also inspired by the simplicity and spontaneity of Chinese and Japanese ink painting, though over the years my own work has evolved into a looser, more contemporary style.

Alongside Floriosa, I maintain a contemporary fine art practice under my own name, exhibiting regularly throughout Australia. Over the past decade I've been fortunate to place hundreds of original paintings into private collections both here and overseas. These days, if I'm not in the studio, there's a good chance I'm wandering around Sydney with secateurs in my bag, bringing home flowers, seedpods and whatever else catches my eye.