artist residencies
Time, Rocks, Place 2022. Argyrotype print selected for Fugitive exhibition at Hill End, NSW.
It can be challenging to occupy a space temporarily and create a sense of home. Even more challenging to return home and realise that your old space no longer ‘fits’. Harnessing the energy of homecoming can facilitate growth, experimentation and expansion.
Read More
When Moonah Trees Walked 2025 - cyanotype on bamboo paper 29.7cm w x 21cm h
Adapt, experiment and survive. That’s my motto, especially when it comes to artist residencies where the unforeseen can completely derail your best laid plans. Getting sick when away from home can be very debilitating. Yet it can also give you the impetus to adapt and experiment, abandoning all measure of control, sometimes with surprising results.
Read More
Washing out the cyanotype solution in a tray under the garden tap (improvisation)
Experimentation is about taking risks. Pursuing a train of thought and organising the steps to get there gives you a better chance of success, even allowing for some ‘failures’ along the way. My blueprint for success is to plan, execute then let go of any expectations. It ‘s how I can adapt and improvise when at an artist residency.
Read More
Part of a gridded image of Moonah trees
Reconnaissance is a way to ‘hit the ground running’ when you are about to embark on an artist residency. I’ve been taking preliminary photos of the Moonah trees at Point Nepean National Park to see what the pictures suggest. This has led me to consider gridding up an image of the trees dancing together which I can then draw and print over as cyanotypes.
Read More
Detail of a cyanotype print using blackberry leaves as a stencil
Pest or Passion? I’ve had both reactions to the humble blackberry. But never would I have thought it could lead me down an interesting path of discovery about alternative photographic practices. Yet I now find myself regarding this plant with new eyes.
Read More
On my desk - paints and brushes back where they belong next to my painting in process
When you finally face what’s holding you back, it’s liberating. My paint brushes and paints are back on my studio bench, there’s a canvas on my easel and I’m painting. Fifty years of not feeling that I could paint has meant I didn’t even try. But I’ve had years of practising as an artist to get to this point. Now I’m excitement to see what’s next.
Read More
Successive layers of wallpaper at the Oatlands Supreme Court building
What are the most important ideas to include in an artist statement about your artwork? After my artist residency in Oatlands, I wrote how the architectural features in the town and its houses became time portals I used to enter colonial thinking. Peeling back the fragments of layered wallpapers hinted at what my paintings were about and how they responded to this historical town.
Read More
Shine Your Light Bright. 2024. Collage mixed media on kozo paper. This piece is now in the Southern Midlands Council ‘s art collection.
Composition can be a tricky skill to master. Sometimes no matter what you do the elements of a piece won’t sit together on the paper. Do you tear it up and start again or persevere until things fall into place? Both actions require courage and both can be a way to resolve the trickiest of challenges.
Read More
Cracks in the Edifices: that’s where the light gets in, Oatlands, Tasmania.
You need to be bold when you commit to your line drawing. Especially when it is drawn up in ink. I’ve needed to feel bold when committing to adding motifs of lights and lamps to shine a light on the history of Tasmania with its wars and period of martial law. Cracks in the edifices allows the light to shine in and is the first step in truth telling.
Read More
WIP artist book page, Oatlands, Tasmania
What views did the colonists want to create in their newly invaded and possessed land? Most held ideas about what ‘civilisation’ and ‘society’ meant and so forever changed the landscape to conform to this point of view. My preoccupation has been how to find a gentle way into post colonial viewpoints using windows as portals. To mourn what was lost and hold a vision for the future.
Read More