On my studio desk ~ the last of the summer flowers, a posy of joy and inspiration.

Finding Joy

April 19, 2026 in Creativity, Paper

When creative joy feels elusive, how do you discover it again? It's a recurring challenge to keep your practice alive, vibrant and engaging. Sometimes it feels like all is lost forever, yet I’ve discovered that creativity needs activation, not through thinking but in the doing. When you let your hands lead you, your heart and mind get activated and eventually join together in joyful creating.

Work in Progress from the Tree Sentinels series

Death of a Tree

February 23, 2026 in Trees, Creativity

It’s a sobering experience knowing that a decision made during the depths of winter when light failed to reach the washing line, has meant that a tree has been condemned to die. While the arborist is at work, I paint bodies of trees inside sentinel figures, hoping to alleviate the onset of unexpected grief that has come with the death of a tree.

The September 2026 calendar page with one of my new cyanotype images

Something to Write Home About

October 26, 2025 in Creativity

The creative process can be addictive and like any addiction has its highs and lows. Yet turning up for yourself in small ways eventually gives you ‘something to write home about’ even if it is only that you made something for yourself to enjoy.

Work in progress on a mangrove/tree collage

Dare to Draw

August 24, 2025 in Collage, Creativity

Hanging onto ideas of how to draw can keep you in a strait jacket. It’s often the way we are judged as a child; if you can draw then you’ll make a good artist. If not, forget it. Leaning to scribble and muck around is a constant challenge. That’s where a drawing group can help you dare to draw. This has a flow on effect in your ability to embrace imperfection.

*Unlock My Heart* 2025 - handmade paper collage

Conceal and Reveal

July 20, 2025 in Creativity, Paper

Art has a way of revealing larger truths. I’ve been using a technique of conceal and reveal on some new artworks which has led me to think about how this reflects the state of world matters; political, environmental and humanitarian. I’ve become an excavator, discovering what stands out amongst the busy-ness of visual stimulation.

Black and sepia toned watercolour picture of a British Alpine goat — *Fern the Goat* - watercolour c2006

Of Goats and Visions

June 29, 2025 in Art, Creativity

How do you birth the future you want to see? For me it started with painting goats. Not any old goats, but my British Alpine goats we had in Victoria. They were my ticket to change my world from where I was then to where I am now. Becoming an architect of your world starts with a vision and builds from there.

Handmade paper torn into circles, the start of a thematic idea of paper and water

Start Somewhere

June 15, 2025 in Creativity, Paper

Beginning a new project can feel daunting. Where to start? For me it’s what I call creative chaos time, where ideas tumble around until I can find a single thread to follow. It’s a time of experimentation, trying out materials and methods until the project begins to fall into some kind of cohesive state.

My new laptop screen wallpaper, inviting me into the forest of Takayna, Tasmania.

Perseverance

May 11, 2025 in Creativity, Artist Books

Perseverance is not necessarily a quality you would think you need when it comes to being creative. Yet finding little creative ‘hacks’ can help keep your enthusiasm buoyant and your art alive through all the messy ups and downs of the creative process.

*Hearts, Hands & Bodies* (work in progress) - charcoal & ink on rice paper

Hearts, Hands and Bodies

May 04, 2025 in Creativity

What does it take to change public opinion? To change a government policy and advocate for protection rather than destruction. Drawing a visual representation of the hearts, hands and bodies of passionate advocates for change helps keep my hope alive. I take heart from the 1970s protest movements to stop the whaling industry. Whale watching rather than killing, forest bathing rather than old growth forest clear-felling. Change is possible.

Finding the right path to take can be tricky…image from my installation of *Kiss the Earth (with your feet)* in Sofia, Bulgaria 2016.

Creative Insomnia

April 06, 2025 in Creativity, Artist Books

When you’re not sure what path to take, that middle of the night insomnia can yield some ‘eureka’ moments. Such as revealing the solution to what art to create during my Art 4 Takayna residency in Tasmania over Easter.