When Margaret Preston returned to Australia in 1919 after living in Europe, she called for a truly ‘national art’ founded on the imagery of Australia’s Indigenous peoples. Preston was influenced by Indigenous art as well as by international contemporary art and European art history. In Stenocarpus – wheel flower she refers to the traditions of botanical art, showing flowers in various stages of bloom, but diverges from convention by reducing the level of representational detail in favour of an emphasis on design, pattern and colour.