“A Visual Journey in Chromatic Rhythms,” an artistic initiative funded through the Hobsons Bay City Council Community Support Package – New Art stream.
Hobsons Bay’s NEW ART was a funding stream aimed at celebrating and supporting the local arts; where creatives, artists and community activate spaces and precincts across the city, that people can engage with, experience, and enjoy.
Community engagement is important to Carlos Almenar Diaz, who involved Hobsons Bay’s future generation in the discovery of Op-art, through a series of workshops about his artistic research, the relationship between lines, patterns and colours. Carlos Almenar Diaz worked in collaboration with visual arts teachers and students at Newport Lakes and Seaholme Primary Schools, animating practice sessions where students created bright and colourful works of art with the fundamentals of Op-art.
Carlos Almenar Diaz has given an art brief for the students to take on the challenge of creating artwork based on a basic line template. Each student discovered the wonderful and exhaustive technique of creating Op-art works.
Creative workshops with arts students
Creative Process and Installation of Public Artworks
Carlos Almenar Diaz has created two artworks from his “Chromatic Rhythms” series which is part of his research in interaction between line, pattern and colour.
Through this immersive, captivating, colourful and optical experience as you observe and move through the artwork, you’re invited to take the time to pause for a moment, acknowledge your response and feelings allowing yourself to connect with the surrounding environment.
Imagine this environment, what it was, what it will become and what you want it to be now. Close your eyes to immerse yourself and connect with this land.
“The deeper you look, the more you find. The longer you take, the deeper you understand”.
Dean Stewart, 2020 (*)
This public art commission embraces a comprehensive creative process covering exploration of optical effects through the use of colour and rhythm, on site research, investigation of the Southern Volcanic Plain grasslands’ native wildflowers, and consultation with Hobsons Bay City Council.
With the support of Council, Carlos Almenar Diaz has identified two areas to incorporate his artwork to connect within the urbanism, the broader natural environment, and the local community in routine activities.
- G.H. Ransom Reserve in Altona, corner Grieve Parade & Queen Street, a stone’s throw away from the beach.
- Paine Reserve in Newport, between Mason & Derwent Streets, right next to the Newport Community Hub.
Both artworks were in public spaces accessible to anyone, from mid-October 2022 to end of February 2023.
Analogous and Complementary Colours, Integrated in Chromatic Rhythms
The integration of botany into this chromatic artwork was important to artist Carlos Almenar Diaz. With the support of his curator Yohann Naviere, they investigated the Southern Volcanic Plain grasslands indigenous plants and colours composition. The Southern Volcanic Plain native grasslands are a threatened ecosystem, from which only 2% of the original vegetation survive. They also studied Hobsons Bay’s coastline, saltmarshes and local wetlands indigenous vegetation.
The vast grasslands, covered by indigenous grasses, tussocks and shrubs, offered a lush background to an endless display of blooming wildflowers, in Spring and Summer, encompassing immense meadows, along creeks, valleys and meandering around trees.
The artworks introduced the observers to a selection of local species, with the hope that they would continue their walk further and discover Hobsons Bay’s significant ecosystems, marine areas, wetlands, woodlands and grasslands.
To learn more about indigenous wildflowers and how to care for them, we encourage you to connect with local groups and organisations who care for this unique and beautiful environment.
“We are all the newest custodians and caretakers of these ancient lands which we now call home.”
Dean Stewart, 2020 (*)
(*) From “Lost Lands Found” by Dean Stewart, on Hobsons Bay City Council’s website,
Read more about this unique community driven artistic educational project on Star Weekly 01/11/2022.
Images: “Creative workshops with arts students” © almenardiaz. “Aerial view, Paine Reserve, Newport” © almenardiaz. “Connecting colours to local native wildflowers”: artwork © almenardiaz, Murnong or Yam Daisy © VicFlora, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (Karunajeewa, N.G.), Showy Parrot-Pea © VicFlora, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (Lay, Geoff),Native Flax © VicFlora, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria (Brown, A.J.)
To learn more about the Southern Volcanic Plain grasslands indigenous plants: Biodiversity of the Western Volcanic Plains, Hobsons Bay Community & Conservation, Australian Plants Society – Keilor Plains Group, “Indigenous Plant Use” by Zena Cumpston, Grasslands Biodiversity of South-Eastern Australia, Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria, “Lost Lands Found” by Dean Stewart, Friends of Skeleton Creek, Dance of the Plants, Newport Lakes Native Nursery, Habitat Gardens
Follow @almenardiaz to keep up to date