The title of Meredith Woolnough's latest exhibition at the CSIRO Discovery Centre, Biophilia describes exactly what the artist herself feels towards nature: "an innate and genetically determined affinity of human beings with the natural world".

The exhibition takes an artistic approach to depict the small and often overlooked veining systems found in nature - namely, of leaves and coral. While some pieces are embroidered replicas of actual systems which Woolnough has found in nature, others take a more artistic approach with the artwork's colouring inspired by the diverse colours of leaves and coral.

"Whenever I go out and find something that I'm interested in there will often be one element of that particular plant or animal that draws me in," she says.

"It might be the colour of it, it might be the structure of it, it might be the veining structure. That will then become the element that I really try to depict in the artwork.

"If it is a big leaf that I have recreated, it's probably because I really liked the veining structure, for example. But the ones ... where there are hundreds of leaves put together aesthetically it's because I was actually really drawn to the very subtle colour changes within the leaves."

The exhibition is one where science meets art - as it is with all of Woolnough's work.

The self-confessed science nerd, finds herself continually drawing on natural structures for her artwork, whether it is the veining systems of leaves or coral as it is in Biophilia or from elsewhere in nature such as in shells.

READ MORE:

"I've just always been interested in the way that things grow and function," Woolnough says.

"I also find the structures very beautiful, particularly veining structures and whether you're looking at a branch of coral or the internal veins in the leaf, or even the veins that you'll find in ourselves, they're always very similar structures.

"I've always found that really interesting as an overarching connection between everything that lives on the planet."

But on a more practical level, the structures are also ones which can easily be recreated using Woolnough's free-motion embroidery technique. Using her sewing machine, the artist "draws" her image onto a water-soluble material.

"It's just there so I can actually build up my stitched drawing and then once the drawing is complete and all well connected, I can wash away that base material," she says.

"That's why my embroideries when you look at them, you're literally just looking at the embroidery like it's not stitched onto anything. It just sort of appears like a bit more of a sculptural stitched drawing, with no fabric.

"But I have to make sure that the structure that I have built, my drawing, is all very well connected. If it's not connected it would just turn back into a big tangle of thread so I have to plan out how I'm going to stitch it and one thing that is quite characteristic of my work is that I stitch very densely."