Billy Buttons are another favourite Australian flower. I first became aware of this cheerful globe-like flower when designing a teaching program about the Koziusko National Park. My colleague and I became quite fascinated by them and included them in the research project that our nine and ten year olds undertook.

Since then, I began to see them about  - they are a favourite of florists with their long upright stems and work nicely as dried flowers too. In fact, I bought a bunch at the Carriageworks markets at least a year ago. The flowers have since dried but retained their colour and can be found dotted around my home in a selection of vases. 

This artwork is based on some living specimens however. I saw these at the Mt Annan Botanical Gardens which my friends and I had visited, lured by the promise of swathes of paper daisies… It was another occasion where it was heartening to be part of a crowd of people who had made a pilgrimage to admire plants! We enjoyed that display but also roamed about to see the other plantings which included Billy Buttons. I loved the rhythm created by the stems of these plants, contrasting with the spherical flowers. My Billy Button painting also features in my Art Cards collection.