The humble budgie is the face of latest Aussie Post stamps
We’re super excited for one of our very favourite feathered-friend photographers, Leila Jeffreys, who recently announced a career highlight. “As of today, three of my artworks are to be featured on Australia Post stamps,” Leila said.
“When I think of the significance of postage stamps, I picture them reserved for the heads of royalty. To have your face canonised in a stamp would surely be one of the highest honours and signifies to the world of your importance and uniqueness to your Country. Today I am honoured that the Australian Post Office has decided to give that honour to the budgerigar. A colourful, iconic, tiny parrot native to Australia.
“When I first exhibited budgies in 2010 at human scale I could only dream one day they would end up on a postage stamp.
“This is ‘Celery’ who was exhibited in 2019 as part of my ‘High Society’ exhibition. Celery belongs to Alison Archbold who has been breeding budgerigars for more than 48 years. Alison and I spoke for over a year before I worked with her birds. I stayed on her farm where she has spent the last 19 years with her husband re-foresting paddocks for wildlife, raising heritage-breed hens to produce the most beautiful coloured eggs, taking on rescued animals along with her pet alpacas and black headed Dorper sheep, welcoming kangaroos that lie around the property like dogs and then, of course, looking after her supermodel budgerigars. It’s an exciting day for myself, for Alison @archbold_design_australia and for Australian wildlife.”
You can listen to Leila discuss turning bird photography into fine art in our Talking Australia podcast here:
