WA Floral Art Society 2006 State C/ships

WA Floral Art Society Inc 200WA Floral Art Society Inc 2006 State Championship for Floral Art

1ST PLACE

DEBBIE SKROZA

Debbie Skroza’s 1^st place exhibit in the Championship Class was a very well executed design utilising tall pieces of rusted iron and ‘snake wood’, that blended beautifully with plant materials such as the orange leucospermums, green carnations, tall green gymea leaves, large echeverias, ‘silver dollar’ eucalyptus, monsterea leaves and spanish moss.

Debbie’s design certainly attracted much interest and was very much admired.

1ST PLACE EXHIBIT

Report compiled by Debbie Skroza regarding her 1st prize entry

2006 WA FLORAL ART SOCIETY STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS FOR FLORAL ART COMPETITIONS

‘Open Championship Class’ Report on the 1^st place design by Debbie Skroza

The opportunity of doing a 'large piece' doesn't come around all that often other than a championship so I was looking forward to designing a piece that would fill the given space of 122cm square by 244cm in height. I was asked recently where the inspiration comes from to do a large piece, where do you start etc, and as always for me it starts with just one element - on this occasion it was rust! On my drive home from work everyday, there is a large steel boat on the roadside that has been 'under construction' for some years and I admire it's beautiful rusty colour and sculptural form, and secretly hope that it never actually makes it to the water. So for my Championship design this is where the concept started. I gathered a few old rusty panels from the back of the block and had them welded (thanks Mark) into a rough structure to form the basis of the design. Because of the size of it, I was conscious of the need to pay particular attention to the scale of the plant material chosen. For this reason, I used some pieces of snakewood collected on a past trip up north and very large echiveras from my garden along with solid monstera leaves at the base level. The left side of the rust structure was significantly heavier than the right side so again for scale and balance I used large Gymea leaves to give strength to the right side of the design. Once I felt comfortable with the balance and scale it was a matter of adding material to enhance my lovely rust. I chose pincushion proteas for their form and colour, groups of green sim carnations for contrast, green/grey spanish moss and eucalypt to unite the colour of the base and the snakewood, and some pieces of hairsfoot fern to add colour, texture and interest to the design. For some reason there are some designs that evolve from your mind into actually being, more readily than others. For me this one was a pleasure and I had a lot of fun doing it. Thanks again to the West Australian Floral Art Society Inc for hosting the Championships and giving us the opportunity to indulge in our flowery fun.