Nadine Reynolds A Little bit of Heaven Mixed media and silk thread on silk 60cm x 40cm $500 S G Stephens worked over 30 years to buy the land and to plant a garden to donate it to the people of Toowoomba. This altruism is worth highlighting. Fragments of the typed letter is embroidered into the silk, alluding to the passing of time. In the speech given by Mrs. F. J. Paterson at the opening “It is a little bit of heaven transplanted here on earth.”
Nadine Reynolds Supplying Flowers Acrylic and silk thread on silk 108cm x 47cm $600 “I hope that the Council will continue the practice of supplying flowers from time to time to the Toowoomba General Hospital.” SG Stephens in his letter expressing his desire to donate the land for Laurel Bank Park. I love the details enclosed in the letter. It is such a generous, thoughtful, considered gift. I think “supplying flowers’ can be seen as a metaphor. I think supplying ‘flowers’ is a lovely way to live really.
Nadine Reynolds 23rd August 1932 Mixed media and silk thread on silk 40cm x 43cm $250 When painting en plein air I was drawn to the old palm trees. Who had planted them? “23rd August 1932” is the date on the letter from S G Stephens donating Laurel Bank Park to the people of Toowoomba. In researching this recent history, I am also remembering the far distant history of the first people who walked, learned and played on this land.