The Art
This artwork was a part of my Australian Native Birds and Flowers series featured in my popular 2024 Calendar. In this series, I explored an iconic collection of Australian Birds including the Zebra Finch, which is one of the most common finches across the arid land of Central Australia. Surrounding this beautiful bird, is also the native Golden Wattle, which is a gorgeous, yellow, flowering tree that can be found all around Alice Springs and across Australia. I was inspired to combine these two birds after seeing a few Zebra Finches hanging around a Golden Wattle tree in the wild down in Port Noarlunga after visiting the beach. The way the Zebra Finches colours and small body looked against the similarly fragile yellow flowers was beautifully complementary. Combining Fauna into my pop art Flora designs is a new exploration of mine and in doing so, I have found a deeper appreciation for the birds of Australia and ultimately have become more aware of spotting them out when out and about on my walks. I hope to continue this collection by adding other types of native birds and flowers and creating them in my bold, pop art vision. If you have a favourite Australian bird you want seen turned into my design style, reach out to me on my Instagram Page
The Artist
Melanie Gunner is an Adelaide, SA, based artist original born and raised in the red centre of Alice Springs, NT. She is a small business entrepreneur who explores her creative style through acrylic paintings, murals, digital design and many other forms of expression. Through her lived experience of mental health and being diagnosed with ADHD in her mid 20s, she uses her art to simplify her surroundings down to bright, fun colours and bold outlines, allowing her to appreciate them without being too overwhelmed and over stimulated. Her signature art style she is known for are those of flowers, primarily native flowers of Australia, and her Central Australian landscape paintings, both inspired by the pop art styles of Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. However, through her journey, she explores new subjects and inspirations to bring happiness and colour to others around her. She has been a part of several exhibitions throughout the NT and SA, been a project manager for several youth and community art projects, and has completed almost 20 individual murals across the two states, her most recent one being for Adelaide Fringe Festival 2024 located at Gluttony.
To follow her artistic journey or to purchase some of her art:
Instagram @mrgunnerart | website www.mrgunnerart.com