Drawing Inflorescence: for Solo Piano

The title and influences for this work come from two sources. First, the exquisitely detailed botanical illustrations of my friend, Australian artist Elizabeth Cooper, whose work is held in the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, the Victorian State Botanical Collection and the Art Gallery of Ballarat, Victoria, as well as in private collections in Australia and overseas. Her drawings of the Australian rainforest tree, Stenocarpus sinuatus (Firewheel Tree), with its distinctive wheel-like inflorescences and mature fruits and seeds, shaped the work, the sound gestures and the sustain pedal as 'sound brush' colouring specified notes and note groups. The second influence was Deanna Petherbridge's book, The Primary of Drawing (2010), which explains and illustrates technical drawing terms such as pentimento, grisaille, chiaroscuro, parerga, reverso, ébauche and line itself. Several of these have been drawn into the work. A companion piece for piano and toy piano (one player), Drawing Firewheels, explores similar sound concepts. The work was written for pianist, Michael Kieran Harvey, who gave its first performance.