Reconnaissance

Part of a gridded image of Moonah trees

An adjoining part of the gridded image of Moonah trees

How to start an artist residency? This is a question I am often asked and one I ask myself repeatedly in the lead up to arrival on site. There are always last minute jitters and self doubts that pop up. Can I pull something together, can I produce enough work to keep inspiration alive for the next few months after I get home? More importantly there is always the niggling thought - What if I fail?

I have learnt to put all these questions and doubts firmly in their place and ‘trust the process’. The advice I give myself and others is to prepare as much as you can, then let go of expectations and respond to the moment.

For most artist residencies I have been on, a preliminary proposal is put forward about what your project will be. Often this idea can radically change when you arrive at your destination. Projects and ideas morph into other shapes; determined by the weather, what is available at the site and what materials you have managed to bring with you.

I love the initial stage of an artist residency which is all about reconnaissance. Going for a walk, checking out the lie of the land, staying open to what presents itself to you is wonderfully liberating. Going to a residency with a project firmly fixed in your mind can be a drawback as it doesn’t allow room for surprise and wonder.

I also like arriving at a place earlier than the start of the residency as you have time to orientate yourself to the surroundings in a relaxed and receptive mode. This week has been exactly that. Time to go exploring in the surrounding area and become familiar with the shapes and forms of the coastal Moonah woodland in the Mornington Peninsula where the Moonah trees (Melaleuca lanceolate) grow.

These endangered trees are growing in small pockets of remaining coastal alkaline bushland in and around Tootgarook, Rye and Sorrento with the largest outcrop in the protected Point Nepean National Park, on the very tip of the Mornington Peninsula. There are also some across the bay in Anglesea, Barwon Heads and Point Lonsdale in the Bellarine Peninsula, areas once connected by the land-bridge when Port Philip Bay was a swampy valley.

Moonah trees are characterised by their incredibly twisted tree trunks which seem to dance together. Their overhanging canopies form a protective habitat for wildlife such as the Long-nose Bandicoot, Black Wallaby and Southern Grass Skink. I’ll be starting my residency with cyanotype drawings of these sinuous dancing forms, using printed transparencies of my photographs to create the blue and white images.

I’m quite excited to start as I have a pad of square paper and will grid up the images as a series of small prints with ink drawings connecting them together. It’s not something I’ve done before although I explored elements of this process on my residency in Iceland in 2022. I’ve packed my little data projector and a tray for washing the cyanotype prints when exposed in the sun. It’s a good start for the first week before going out plein-air sketching. Let’s see what develops…

Detail of a cyanotype print and drawing made during my residency at the Fish Factory Creative Arts Centre, East Iceland, 2022.