Artwork 63 Sturt's Desert Rose and the Solar Eclipse

One December in the early 2000s I drove north from Adelaide with family to see the total solar eclipse from near Lyndhurst. We parked near the ochre pits, and the rugged desert scene at the base of the painting was the focal point of our viewing site. Sunset occurred soon after the eclipse (which was a spectacular experience greeted with cheers from the many others watching with us)—and the sunset was also quite an experience afterwards, with a line of silhouetted figures along the background ridge. We took many photos. As I had photographed many “desert roses” in our travels, I decided to incorporate these beautiful flowers into the scene as if viewing it through a desert rose bush.

Other plants in the same order as Gossypium sturtianum (the Malvales) include flame trees, baobabs, kapok trees, and bottle trees.