Art in the Gardens

A gallery of objects we have collected over the years

This bronze cast of The Wrestlers was bought by Clive and Michael in Florence at the Galleria Bazzanti on the banks of the River Arno in April 1995.  The original sculpture from the fourth century BC, now lost, is attributed to the Greek sculptor Lysippos, a contemporary of Alexander the Great, Aristotle and Theophrastos, who is regarded as the father of the science of Botany and whose writings hold a special significance to us here at The Drip today.

The Bazzanti  foundry also produced a cast of the much-loved bronze of Il Porcellino in the Loggia del Grano in the historic centre of Florence. This cast of Il Porcellino, now located outside Sydney Hospital on Macquarie Street in Sydney, was given as a gift to the people of New South Wales by the Marchessa Clarissa Torrigiani in memory of her father Dr Thomas Fiaschi, who was a surgeon at the hospital and one of the founders of the Mudgee wine industry. Dr Fiaschi bought land and established vineyards here because the landscape and climate of Mudgee reminded him of his Tuscan homeland.

This bronze of The Wrestlers, one of only three of this size produced by Bazzanti,  was bought jointly by Clive and Michael during a family holiday in Florence in 1995 in the hope that one day we would create a setting at The Drip that was worthy of such a fine piece and as a recognition of a delightful and often overlooked facet of Mudgee's history as an Australian wine growing region.

 A small terracotta plaque marking Autumn and celebrating the season of the Wine Harvest was bought at the markets in the Loggia del Grano in Florence in 1995, near the statue of Il Porcellino. It is now located at the entrance to the Wine Cellar.

This terracotta fountain was made for us by well-known ceramic artist Cameron Williams and was used as a Wine Fountain, gushing an excellent Mudgee Shiraz for guests at the Mudgee TABLESCAPE event during the wine vintage of 1997.  We are still trying to find the best place for it in the gardens here.

The jugs of the Cameron Williams Wine Fountain against a wall in The Old Cottage Garden.

 A Maiolica tile by Italian ceramicist Laureanti.  This was purchased in 1995 in Caltagirone, Sicily,  where the tradition and techniques of Maiolica were first introduced into Italy by Moorish artists in the 12th century.  It is installed in the wall at the end of The Rose Tunnel..

 A Maiolica platter painted for TABLESCAPE 1996  by Ro Francis,  who in recent years,  with husband Grosvenor, has created one of Mudgee's most successful and highly regarded local food companies, High Valley Cheese on Cassllis Road.

 Tile by Tjenka Murray

 Wall Plaque by Norman Hetherington

Norman Hetherington was best known as Mr Squiggle, which became the longest running show ever on ABC television.  He designed several stage productions for Michael.

Detail of a large wall plaque with Neptune and assorted mythical sea creatures.  This was a birthday present from Clive to Michael more years ago than we will admit.  It will be installed in The Water Walk one day when more work has been done there to make things ready.

The Water Walk is part of the Minor Axis intersecting with the Long Axis pointing to "The Drip" . It was designed to act as a reminder that this valley is blessed with a perpetual water source in the form of The Drip and to highlight the fact that this valley is the beginning of the Western watershed that eventually leads into the Murray Darling river system and flows on into the Great Southern Ocean.  On the other side of the Dividing Range which forms the boundary of this property the water runs east and down to the Pacific Ocean.

One of a pair of urns by potter Wayne Smith who worked on MUDGEE TABLESCAPE in 1996.  These urns frame an entrance to The Water Walk, an area which is still very much "under construction".

One day we hope to see long water troughs lining The Water Walk, (where now we have an old laundry tub), edged with comfortable seats enabling civilized discourse and dialogue amongst like-minded souls, whilst enjoying the shade provided by luxuriant vines thriving on the pergola above, (possums ate the grape vines we had there so we are rethinking that bit), all of this cooled by the clear, fresh water tumbling from spouts placed on the walls (the plumbing is already there) and enhanced with gleaming mosaics celebrating the vitality and power of the life force that a reliable water source in the form of the spring known as "The Drip" has brought to this valley.