Canna lily, ginger and floppers are some of the plants portrayed in colour pencil drawings by Emma Ingham-Dounouk in the show ?Vegetation and Vessels? currently showing at the New Heritage House Gallery.

Also distributed around the room are incredible papier mache vessels by Lynn Morrell placed on, and nicely complemented by, antique and reproduction furniture that make up the usual stock of the New Heritage House.

All together it creates an incredibly stimulating environment. Most of Ms Ingam-Dounouk?s colour pencil drawings are exquisitely detailed and realistic renditions of plants. They are life-sized and varied with a pleasant variety of compositions ? centred, off-centre, vertical and horizonal. The framing is exquisite. These are not perfect plants, there are holes in leaves and brown spots.

?Aloe?, in particular, has the familiar brown tips and curves delightfully into and around itself. A departure from these realistic paintings are the two versions of ?Palm Tree at Stone Crusher?s Corner?.

These large vertical paintings fill the white paper on which they are drawn in gold and silver colour pencil offset nicely by the wide gold frames. Unfortunately there are creases and bubbles in the paper detracting somewhat from the drawing. In the middle of these two striking drawings are six black and white ink drawings of palms ? coconut and palmetto ? in wooden frames.

The blackness of the sometimes sparse, lines stands out against cream coloured paper set off by white matters. Also scattered around the gallery are more smaller palm tree drawings in chunky natural wood frames.

Lynn Morell?s vessels are all distinctly unique and each is a delight to look at. Even the idea of papier mache vessels is intriguing. Most are so well painted and lacquered it?s not obvious what they are made of.

They are reminiscent of Chinese vessels complementing the selection of authentic Chinese objects in the gallery display window. Suspend any idea of what a vessel is, other than having empty space within it, as these are fantastic shapes.

Most striking is ?Strata? in pleasing greens, from squiggles to mottled and solid, with fine gold lined embellishments, and a tassel. More or less oblong in shape at the joint of this vessel the layers of papier mache are exposed. ?Lotus flower? and ?bud? are pale green and the gentlest of orange extremely suggestive of petals. This paint is thinly applied and the paper layers are obvious.

Each piece would blend into rather than stand out in any environment. ?Gold leaf? is bucket shaped with mottled reddish retangular shapes on red.

Gold leaves accentuate the vessel in an irregular pattern. ?Silver leaf? is similarly patterned but the paint is white and grey and thicker. The vessel starts as a traditional oblong but at the top has a capelike back with contrasting black inside. Try to imagine a shape tall in the middle and low at either end wrapped so that these ends come towards each other and that could be ?Overlap?.

The result is a wonderful curvacious vessel tall at back and low in front. Inside it is blue with orange shining through wrinkles. Outside at the overlap there are multicoloured pieces of paper blending from oranges to yellows, greens, blues and turquoise floating like clouds on navy blue.

?Two blue? looks like two half bowls stuck together, both have similar patterns on the outside ? oceanic flowing blue and green with what looks like flower petals floating among them. One of the insides is pale green the other beige.

?Leaf Swirl? doesnt? swirl. It?s a magazine holder in pale green with a bamboo frame and real leaves pressed into a pleasing unassuming piece.

The triangular ?Stripes? is not really a vessel. It has a hole in the bottom and is perched among three black sticks. The coloured stripes seem to blend into each other accentuating the bronzy colour inside. ?Sunday at Freddies? is a party scene with multiple black and white portraits on the outside. They are well set off by the purple it sits on.

All of the vessels sit on fabric covered half inch thick rubber mats that greatly complement them. Inside ?Sunday at Freddie?s? are brightly coloured and pastel patches of paper, with colours like bright pink and blue jumping out.

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?Vegetation and Vessels? will be on display at the New Heritage House Gallery until March 26, 2004.