ADELAIDE.- A new exhibition is blooming at David Roche Gallery in North Adelaide with the opening of Nature Revealed: Rosa Fiveash & Ellis Rowan on view until Saturday 24 May, which explores South Australia’s rich botanical collections.

This landmark showcase of more than 180 works is coming together for the first time thanks to the generosity of Principal Lender Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium of South Australia, the State Library of South Australia, the University of Adelaide Special Collections, the National Trust (SA), and descendants of the Fiveash family.

Challenging Victorian conventions, Rowan travelled widely and enjoyed international acclaim for her gouache and watercolour wildflowers painted from the 1870s to the 1910s, while the work of Fiveash attracted the interest of Australia’s leading botanists through her dedicated botanical paintings of the 1870s to 1930s.

David Roche Gallery director Robert Reason said this is a rare chance to witness nature through the eyes of two incredibly talented female artists.

“Although they lived very different lives, each had a passion for painting Australia's native flora,” Reason said.

“Fiveash resided in North Adelaide and was highly regarded for her exquisitely detailed images of wild orchids. In contrast, Rowan was an inveterate traveller, a self-promoter and a regular exhibitor of wildflowers, with a national and international profile.

“For a short period of time, between 1906 and 1907, Adelaide was the focus of Rowan's attention, to the extent that she cajoled the citizens and the government into buying works from her, culminating in the acquisition of 100 wildflower paintings for the state, many of them illustrating the local flora. Vibrant and painterly, Rowan's large watercolours from 1906-07 are considered alongside the dedicated botanical paintings of Fiveash from her long artistic career which ended upon her death in 1938.

“The exhibition includes their significant contribution to design through painted porcelain, further enriching our understanding of these two remarkable artists.”

Nature Revealed: Rosa Fiveash & Ellis Rowan is accompanied by a beautiful, fully illustrated catalogue available in store or online at David Roche Gallery.