David Mackay

The Flame of the Forest, Mucuna bennettii, is a large, climbing liana found in the rainforests of Papua New Guinea. Mature plants can have stems as thick as a person’s thigh and the glowing, scarlet flowers can be seen – as its name suggests – from a great distance against the greens of the rainforest, usually hanging hundreds of feet up in the branches of the tallest trees. I was inspired to paint Flame of the Forest when I saw it growing near a spectacular waterfall in a remote part of New Guinea. Fortunately, it thrives in gardens in tropical and subtropical regions and I found it growing in several botanic gardens where I was able to get a lot closer to it! Flame of the Forest is also known as D’Albertis’ Creeper, after the Italian explorer, Luigi D’Albertis, the first European explorer to venture far into the interior of Papua New Guinea, in the late 18th century (He found this plant beside the Fly River, not far from where I saw it myself). The flowers were painted 2½ times life-size to show off their spectacular presence – even when seen from afar.