Lynne Uptin: The Ancients
My home, Tasmania is a global centre of plant palaeoendemism, containing many relics of
some of the world’s most ancient plant lineages. These Gondwanan relicts now survive only in western Tasmania, having vanished from the rest of their, once-prolific, range.
These plant lineages have endured for millions of years. They have fortuitously avoided
growing on the wrong side of volcanoes, lived through ice ages and survived through
extinction events. Today, they persist mostly in regions of stable temperature and rainfall,
across the subalpine and alpine landscapes of western Tasmania.
Tragically, the rapid and severe drying of these habitats now threatens their continued
survival in the wild. Unlike many younger Australian endemics, these ancient species have not evolved strategies for recovery after fire, and are particularly vulnerable to the intense,
sweeping fires increasingly affecting their refuges.
In tracing the lineage of these paleoendemic plants, I have drawn on the research of Professor Greg Jordan from the School of Natural Sciences at the University of Tasmania. Each genus is identified by its age before the present, expressed in “Ma,” meaning mega annum or one million years.
We are fortunate that the Royal Botanical Gardens Tasmania, along with Rae Young at Plants of Tasmania in Ridgeway, are working to propagate some of these rare and remarkable survivors.
— Lynne Uptin, 2025
Highly anticipated, this is Lynne's first exhibition at Bett Gallery since being awarded the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Best Botanical Art Exhibit, along with a Gold Medal, at the 2024 RHS Botanical Art & Photography Show at the Saatchi Gallery, London. This entire suite of winning work was subsequently acquired by the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.
For her previous exhibitions, Lynne drew much of her inspiration from her garden on the D’Entrecasteaux Channel at Middleton, where she cultivated many of the distinctive Gondwanan plants that became isolated when Tasmania separated from Antarctica some 40 million years ago. From her new studio in Battery Point, she now looks to kunanyi/Mount Wellington—a miraculous remnant of temperate wilderness—for similar inspiration. The collections of the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens and the Tasmanian Herbarium are also close at hand to support her practice. Lynne is an Artist Member of the Florilegium of the Botanic Gardens in Sydney and a Fellow of the Society of Botanical Artists in London.
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Lynne UptinNothofagus gunnii 31.8ma : Deciduous Beech, 2025watercolour on Fabriano watercolour paper 640gsm, framed105 x 75 cm (paper size) 111 x 86 cm (frame size)Sold -
Lynne UptinLomatia tasmanica : King’s Holly - dated to 43,500, 2025watercolour on Fabriano watercolour paper 640gsm, framed105 x 75 cm (paper size) 111 x 86 cm (frame size)Sold
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Lynne UptinAgastachys odorata 47ma : White Waratah, 2025watercolour on Fabriano watercolour paper 640gsm, framed105 x 75 cm (paper size) 111 x 86 cm (frame size)AU$ 12,800.00
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Lynne UptinIsophysis tasmanica 65ma : Tasmanian Purple Star, 2025watercolour on Fabriano watercolour paper 640gsm, framed105 x 75 cm (paper size) 111 x 86 cm (frame size)AU$ 12,800.00
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Lynne UptinCenarrhenes nitida 34.5ma : Port Arthur Plum, 2025watercolour on Fabriano watercolour paper 640gsm, framed105 x 75 cm (paper size) 111 x 86 cm (frame size)Sold
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Lynne UptinBlandfordia punicea 84.5 ma : Tasmanian Christmas Bells, 2025watercolour on Fabriano watercolour paper 640gsm, framed105 x 75 cm (paper size) 111 x 86 cm (frame size)Sold
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Lynne UptinMicrocachrys tetragonis 130 ma : Creeping Strawberry Vine, 2025watercolour on Fabriano watercolour paper 640gsm, framed52 x 75 cm (paper size) 61 x 87 cm (frame size)Sold
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Lynne UptinTasmannia lanceolata 32ma : Tasmanian Pepperberry, 2025watercolour on Fabriano watercolour paper 640gsm, framed78 x 58 cm (paper size) 83 x 63 cm (frame size)Sold
