The September 2026 calendar page with one of my new cyanotype images
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.
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Two overprinted cyanotype images of Moonah trees, still not quite ‘perfect’.
How do you connect with your creative self? Sometimes it can feel like you’re always chasing elusive butterflies, trying to make works that you love and that resonate. Spending time regularly with your materials means ideas are more likely to suggest themselves. But it might take stubborn doggedness to keep going.
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Once Were Trees 2025 - one of my new cyanotype prints about suburban development
Success is when your next project springboards off the work you’re currently making. After resolving the niggling doubts that your work would never quite ‘make the grade’, you can pause to look back on what you have achieved. Then it’s time to ‘move the goalposts’ and make new work that propels you forward again.
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Forest Dreams 2025 cyanotype print of multiple exposures on handmade kozo paper
Experimenting can often feel like a waste of time, especially when nothing quite works out like you had hoped. Pushing your materials past their limitations can end up with a total mess. Somewhere in all the chaos there may be a glimpse of a new direction to take. Then you know that all those perceived ‘failures’ were never a waste of time.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Forest Guardians Takayna - 2025 ink on muslin 294cm w x 120cm h
When is it time to wave your own white flag, to surrender to circumstances beyond your control? I’ve been sick all week which has meant a surrendering of sorts, learning from the lessons of letting go and prioritising what is essential. It had me thinking about red flags and white. When and what to fight for and/or when to surrender.
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Work in progress on a mangrove/tree collage
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.
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