I’m looking out through my window at figures in a landscape. Non-human figures, each with their own living energy - trees, shrubs, native grasses, flowers and through it all the sound of the wind rustling leaves and kookaburras heralding rain.

This is the space I will now occupy for the next month. A creative space, a place for dreaming and making. For walking and absorbing the landscape.

I have come back to the Blue Mountains to resume my artist residency that was abruptly stopped at this time last year due to the pandemic. I return with fresh eyes, new confidence in my ability to create large artworks, and a sense of gratitude for all that I have been given.

Last year this landscape had been ravaged by fire. There were orange new growth leaves on the trees - I later found out that this vivid orange had a special poison substance in it to detract predators and allow the new growth time to grow the ‘adult’ leaves.

Now everywhere I look is a sea of green. It has been raining and the dirt road outside is muddy. I can’t wait to grab some of that mud and start using it in my art. There are still charcoal clumps fallen off trees but all of this now under a beneficent blue sky.

I have started to claim my studio space, putting up work from last year to ‘springboard’ me back into action. Outside I am trying out pulp painting with the colours of the landscape, browns and blacks, reds and greens. It is my first attempt to ‘paint’ with pulp in an abstract way.

I have also taken the plunge and bought a 10 metre roll of canvas with me to start a painting series. It’s daunting and exciting in equal measures. But I am in good company with two other artists who make large installations and sculptural works. Dreaming big means stepping up a level, occupying a bigger space, making a bigger footprint.

This all follows on from my Occupy exhibition which opened this week. While the opening night event was cancelled due to an unscheduled power outage, we were still able to feel like we were occupying the gallery space. This is a joint exhibition with fibre artist Samantha Tannous with works we created when we were both at an artist residency in Curtin Springs, Central Australia in March 2019.

Occupy is all about how we reside in a place for generations, to build stories of occupancy wrought by time and the elements. Layering man-made artefacts and handmade papers, these artworks also speak of broader issues of human occupation and colonisation. You can see a virtual gallery tour here.

How we occupy our own small or large space leaves a trace of our human existence. We can fill our habitation with art and music and joy which bring their own energetic vibrations. Our homes, our studios, our gardens and of course our planet are all the spaces we occupy for the time we are here.