Artist Lamai Anne on her Natio Christmas collaboration
Australia offers us a diverse landscape, a seemingly never-ending offering of unique flora and fauna. Natio has always been inspired by a deep respect for natural Australian beauty and talent. At Christmas time we all look to celebrating and embracing what matters to us most. That’s why we are so excited to share our Artist collaboration with the wonderfully talented Lamai Anne, whose magnificent Native artworks helps us to celebrate Australian and New Zealand floras this Christmas.
Lamai is a New Zealand born, Australian raised digital artist whose signature illustrations of native gums, ferns and flowers joyfully celebrate our home’s unique beauty. Her illustrations of Australian Natives are meticulously brought to life through her digital art, and the composition between the seasons to create vivid, colourful and eye-catching pieces that bring the Australian outdoors into focus.
We sat down with Lamai recently in her home studio, just outside of Melbourne, to meet her animals and have a chat about what inspires her most and how she translates her inspiration to capture the beauty of the world around us.
Click here to view our Christmas Gifting range.
How do you feel to be working with Natio on its Christmas gift set collection for 2022?
I am so excited for everyone to see this collection come to life! It has been a dream to work with Natio, the collection is just so wonderful, and I can’t wait to share it with you all.
What do you love about flora and fauna– what about it interests you?
It’s often the changing of the seasons that inspires me the most. The way a flowering gum will burst into life in summer and leave behind beautiful gum nuts by autumn.
Are there any other things that inspire you?
I am inspired by shapes and colours of flowers, especially Australian Natives, it will either be a colour that appeals to me, or a shape of a warratah. I will take lots of photos of the one flower and develop the illustration and composition from there. I spend a lot of time putting together colour palettes, for example I will walk past a banksia and notice the beautiful dusty blues on the back of the leaves, I will put that together with lots of different contrasting colour combinations and that can be sometimes how an illustration starts.
Which is your favourite artwork used in the Natio collection.. and why?
My favourite artwork used in the Natio Christmas collection is the flowering gum. It’s probably my favourite piece, because it started from a tree in our paddock when we moved into our property, and one summer it just flowered and it was so beautiful, the colours so rich, and that was my first Native Grace illustration, part of my Native Grace range – the flowering gum inspired me to start the range. That’s definitely my favourite.
What does Christmas mean to you and your family?
Christmas for me, means taking some time off, spending time with family and friends, spending time in my garden and with my animals. It’s that time of year that you can really have some time to embrace and spend time with family. My fondest Christmas memory was in 2008 when I gave birth to my daughter on Christmas Eve, at 11.20pm. I got to spend Christmas day with her and that was an amazing Christmas worth treasuring.
Where do you find beauty?
I find beauty, in things you can often miss when you first take a glance at something, for example a flowering gum – when you first you look at it you start noticing the beautiful red stems, the beautiful shapes and intricate details, that’s where I find beauty, by really observing and looking at things closely. We are surrounded by such beautiful flora and fauna in Australia, and I love the Australian birds- parrots, cockatoos, they are so much fun to illustrate.
Natio is proud to support a local artist and like-minded nature lover to elevate this year’s Christmas campaign. True to Natio’s origins all formulations in the gifts sets range are made in Australia. With a focus on increased sustainability all gifts are designed to last well beyond the Christmas season.
To see more of Lamai’s artwork please visit her website below and you can experience the wonder of her talent and artwork and be inspired as we have.