​Looking down at my concrete studio floor, there’s stuff always.  Things fallen.  Things placed.  Things left.  Things appearing.  
 
There are flood worms and there are moth bits.  I didn't place these there.  But then again, when I say this, I am only thinking directly. The plethora of life beginning and ending seems on steroids with La Niña. It’s outside, but also it comes in, appearing on my studio floor post another inundation of water. Crazy and beautiful. They add to my stories, the detritus of life and the things to be done.  Not least, these remains make their presence in two of the paintings within the series of nine works of mine that I painted for the Grey Foundations group exhibition at WAYOUT Art Space, a Cementa Initiative in Kandos.

This mini-series and exhibition nod to time and place: the transitional years since graduating from Fine Arts Honours at UNSW and into the lockdowns of 2020 and beyond and it is about coming to Kandos too, on Dabee lands, Wiradjuri Country, with its cement stories. These nine works have been curated into the exhibition with nineteen artists from this UNSW Honours cohort. A couple of works painted in this mini-series take me back to my honour’s year spent with the artists in this group.  It was 2019 when I picked up the banksia cone, discarded by the side of the studio at my Bundanon Artist in Residence program.  Here, in my painting as in life the banksia cone seems creaturely to me.  In another work, is a painting within a painting. This practice has become an iterative thing for me to do.  This painting in a painting is of one of the works painted during that honour’s year, of some wombat poo in my beloved measuring cup ducks. It takes me back to the critiques we had throughout our Honours year, of other’s thoughts on my attempts and the generous sharing that happened. I loved playing with the paint in this one, scraping back with a pallet knife some of the concrete floor I had painted in this painting, kind of like leaving a print in concrete as it sets. 
 
My boots are present in some of these works too with the orange peel drying for the fire; the jar with the dried remains placed in it years ago by my cousin Kiata; some of the origami cranes deftly made by my youngest; and the nanna blanket crocheted by my children’s great gran for our wedding. When the works have these boots at the bottom of the scene it’s clear to me when I am looking at them that it is I that is looking down but when the works rotate another story comes to the fore with the boots belonging to someone else and the narrative opening up.
 
And these works do rotate.  Some of them anyway.  When I took them in for curation into the Grey Foundations exhibition, I placed them on the floor. It was a buzz when they were spinning around to find their way up for their install into  the exhibition.  Some were on their side and some upside down in relation to how they had been painted. I’m happy with how they landed.  I loved that the process of creating them extended through to this install play with others.  Thanks go to Emily Roebuck who Curated this exhibition, Michael Petchkovsky from WAYOUT, and LuLu Smith who came for the install ride with the cohort. And then the works were up and like the other artists works in the Space, all offer some form of connection with others during the install, at the opening and beyond.  
 
Being a part of this whole Grey Foundations thing has offered and enabled ongoing connection for me with many from this cohort, despite these years of pandemic change. It’s been a joy to see what the other artists have created and written. The collective reflections in the Grey Foundations catalogue are moving and beautifully culminate in hope and positivity “Despite starting out into an uncertain world, we are still here, we are still artists and that is something to be celebrated”.

by Nic Mason

​The hearty feedback I have been afforded has been a treat. And it’s been loads of fun to have friends make the trek out this way. Thank you to everyone who has visited my exhibition Cycle at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (BRAG), attended a talk or participated in a workshop during this exhibition period. It's a wrap.
 
What’s next you ask? Happy times that some works from this exhibition are heading into private collections. Those making their way back to me, may be considered for something more, perhaps another outing in an apt group show or submitted for a prize – only time will tell.
 
And for me, I’m thinking about how I can expand on some of the terrific development opportunities provided by BRAG. During this exhibition, I have given several walk-through talks, workshops and media interviews. When these were in the pipeline, I bit the bullet and had a session with Camilla Ward from The Creative Voice Studio a fellow Orana Arts Inc Studio Co!Lab Member. Both are absolutely and completely recommended by me if they pique your interest. With my next exhibition scheduled for Project Gallery 90, I’m keen to experience and share something more when it’s on too.  
 
BRAG have been amazing in their coordination and support. It has been splendid to see what has spun off from BRAG sending exhibtion notifications out. One example is the online exhibition write up by Artist Profile magazine
 
“ … Using painting as her vehicle, Mason thinks through they ways that we can live with the land, shaped by it as much as we are compelled to care for it. At once personal and philosophical, gently gendered and totally disruptive of any binary mode of thinking, these works knowingly upend genre conventions in playful, imaginative, and expansive ways, drawing on a knowledge of the natural world from within and without the Western history of painting.”
 
Big thanks must go to all the staff and volunteers at BRAG for their expertise and support, Tracy Sorensen for writing the catalogue essay, Clare Lewis for photographing the works and Cr Margaret Hogan for opening the exhibitions.  And many thanks to Create NSW for supporting this project too. 
 
This program is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
 

I have been prepping with workshops coming up. A second workshop date has been set for Thursday 26 May with my Artist-led Workshop as part of my Cycle exhibition at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery for the Wednesday 18 May has become fully booked. 
 
Participants in the workshops will be creating still life studies of eclectic objects, from both the natural and domestic environments, using watercolour and charcoal. Participants can also bring their own objects from home too to add to the still life mix. It is suitable for all levels of experience, from beginner to advanced. Light refreshments and all materials included.
 
To book head to eventbrite
 
If you are coming along I’ll see you there.

It is nerve wracking putting your work out into the world and it is nerve wracking talking publicly.  I have often thought that I don’t represent myself very well.  But who else is there! My emotional side of the brain takes sway and I go into flight, fight, freeze mode. It’s not very conducive to any kind of insightful musings.  And it feels like such an ungenerous state to be in.  I’m not really thinking clearly at all. I wish it weren’t the case and have tried a myriad of ways from public speaking courses to some good prepping to patting the pooch as I talk.  Anyway, at half a century in I’ve decided to try and get some one-on-one help and go the drugs too and try some beta blockers to add to my forces. Happy camper here giving these a crack - figuratively speaking … and literally too.  Heading soon to the Easter holiday annual camping spot with my kids and my long-friended school buddies with their kids too.  Yum.

It's good to have a break too, as Julian Woods, the Audience Participation Officer at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (BRAG) has been firing away at his job.  He just checked in on a date for me to be interviewed on 2MCE Radio.  I have recently been interviewed by Sam Bolt of the Western Advocate, Dom Ingersole on 2BS and just today Alex James from ABC Central West.  Scheduled in is also a talk to the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Society members. As part of the BRAG public program: “In Conversation: Nicola Mason”, I will be in chatting with Jac Underwood from 2BS at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, Saturday 28 May at 11 am.  It’s a free event but bookings are required via Eventbrite. 

My Cycle project is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

If you head in to see the current exhibitions at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (BRAG) do have a look at the catalogues too.  The images of my works photographed by Clare Lewis and the essay by Tracy Sorensen are in the Cycle catalogue.  Tracy Sorensen writes:
 
“ … A tiny toy koala rides a duck measuring cup like a horse. A cheese grater and a banksia cone stand side by side, strangers but also strangely familial, like guests assembled for a wedding photograph. Three banksia cones pose with a 1970s kitchen mincer. They’re not in fear of being minced - it seems to me - but behaving more like children posing on the bonnet of a car, enjoying the exhilarating strangeness and power of it. The cones in the mixmaster’s mustard yellow bowl do look a little threatened by the electricity that might at any moment pulse through that yellow electric cord. 
 
There are almost-but-not-quite stories here, shades of nursery rhyme and nostalgia, of things endowed with personalities, of the lively relationships that children have with their toys and familiar household things …”
 
I am into her insightful thoughts and writing.  Being a recipient of a Create NSW Small Project Grant was terrific.  It funded a writer to be contracted to write for this project.  Woohoo! Thanks too to BRAG staff.  When BRAG staff, Jo Dickson first showed me the draft of the catalogue, I felt really overwhelmed - in a good way.  Thanks to all who pulled this together. 
 
This program is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

​It is now officially open.  Along with Sidney Nolan: Drought, Robert Hirschmann: Past Night and Hui Sellwood: Cubi and other passages is my exhibition Nicola Mason: Cycle open now and on until 5 June 2022.
 
Last night Bathurst Councillor Margaret Hogan had the official honours of opening the exhibitions.  Her words were heartfelt with her clear passion and support for the arts, artists and community.  Thank you, Marg and thank you too to Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (BRAG) Director Sarah Gurich who with her words, weaved in her late-night tawny frogmouth sorrowful encounter viscerally linking the artists exhibitions.  
 
To all the staff at BRAG and the volunteers at BRAGS, you have been a delight to work with.  Big thanks to everyone involved, up front and behind the scenes.  And of course, Tracy Sorensen, Novelist and Craftivist your insightful catalogue essay is a ripper.
 
To all those who came to the opening and celebrated – thank you.  There is a wonderful feeling of being held by community at such events.  And the hugest thanks to my family.  Rocks you are.
 
This whole thing has felt like a rich gift, and it continues …
 
This program is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

The install is happening.  Thank you to all the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery staff in the lead up and behind the scenes of these exhibitions in the making. Along with my paintings and drawings there is a little installation of some of my studio muses. Some of the creature things that appear in my work, like the Mixmaster and the cloud on a stick are on the shelf. I’ve had a play. I am happy.
 
So exciting to be in the Gallery and see the Sidney Nolan Drought works packing a punch as they find their places on the walls.   The Robert Hirschmann Past Night works are shining bright and the Hui Selwood Cubi and other passages works in the foyer speak to me with their character filled presence.  Go check it all out.  
 
To book for the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery opening night fundraiser on Friday 8 April at 6pm and other events happening at the Gallery head to eventbrite.
 
This program is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

From the sidelines it felt like alchemy.  Looking at the mix of light as it changed throughout the shoot.  Brilliant.
​
In a first for me I’ve had a photographer out to the studio organised by Bathurst Regional Art Gallery.  
 
This is good because some of my photos seem spot on colour wise but others, I’ve clearly not got it right.  Time to bring in a professional!
 
Clare Lewis - thank you for your company and the photos. They are spot on and look so true. 

This program is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.
 

With the final studio visit by Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (BRAG), this time with Director Sarah Gurich; the publication of notices in Artist Profile magazine and Art Guide Australia (thanks BRAG); and the last bits and pieces being finalised, it is starting to feel like my upcoming exhibition at BRAG is real.  Like the previous studio visits: with Emma Collerton and Julian Woods from BRAG; and then Tracy Sorensen who has written an incredibly insightful essay for the catalogue, this studio visit was encouraging too. There is a level of comfort heading into this exhibition. I also feel inspired to work with the Gallery staff on the install.  
 
In developing the work for this exhibition ‘playing’ has been an integral part of the process.  I have played with the physically of setting up still life theatres: with my kid’s toys resting on screws on the wall; my kids organic finds placed in a shoebox on a tripod; and with my painted clouds on sticks inserted in still life scenes of kitchenalia reflecting on a glass tabletop.  I have played with paint.  I adore the materiality of playing with layers and moving oil paint around.  All of my paintings developed during the lead up to this exhibition have started with a painted ground of yellow ochre.  Many have finished with this ground integral to the works composition.  I have played with concepts: of nature and culture coalescing; of things being actors; and of ecological impact.  I have played with new art forms for me – like my first animation.  And I look forward to the possibility of playing in the process of the install too.
 
This program is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

I’ve diverged from painting and drawing … kind of.  I have put together an animation.  It’s of over forty drawings that were drawn then snapped and then redrawn all on the one piece of paper.  This means they are no longer present in real form. Just the images of them remain along with the last drawing which you can see in this image on the wall. 
 
To start, I selected a piece of paper I had previously placed a watercolour wash on when I was in Indonesia as part of the Australian Consortium for In-Country Studies (ACICIS) program I undertook to complete my Honours year studies at UNSW.   I chose this piece of paper as it had a watercolour form on it that looked a little cloud like.  It seemed an apt start in these La Niña times.  It also related a little to the clouds on sticks I had created for my still life paintings.  My paper was taped on the wall beside a cleared area on the bookshelf ready for my still life rolling of the banksia cone. 
 
It's a yummy way to animate, to draw and rub out and draw again.  I remember being blown away by the AGNSW William Kentridge show That Which We Do Not Remember.  I saw it on an excursion with my UNSW Honours year cohort in 2019.  It’s amazing how some art just sits with you.  I was reminded of that exhibition when experiencing CEL: the Artists as Animator at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery. With a mention by Animator Damian Gascoigne about installing Stop Motion Studio on your phone, I was off and now animating.
 
In my diary I drew rough little thumbnails of a banksia rolling across a wet scene with a crescendo jump towards the end. My drawings evolved from these thumbs onto my watercolour ground whilst the camera clicked.  Through the act of creating and by the time the banksia had rolled onto the right of the scene my thoughts had morphed. The banksia now beamed up out of the scene.  Hence the work became Banksia Heist.
 
If this first animation of mine rolls its way into my Cycle exhibition at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, it will be quite an unplanned joy.
 
This program is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

Writer Tracy Sorensen came for a studio visit during the week in preparation for her writing a piece for the Cycle Catalogue for my upcoming Bathurst Regional Art Gallery exhibition.  This will be the second time that she has written for an exhibition catalogue regarding my work.  The first was for the WILD catalogue from Cowra Regional Art Gallery for my first solo exhibition in 2016. 

​Delighted that Bathurst Regional Art Gallery suggested she write for the Cycle Catalogue and chuffed that she has said yes again, I am at ease with the conversation from the get-go.  The meandering discussions on Donna Haraway’s ‘naturecultures’, nostalgia, seeing faces in things (which Tracy reminds me is pareidolia) seems not lost on the pooches Nim and Mr Barry Fox, equal participants in this hanging out performance.  In the studio snap captured here is the performance by the cheese grater and the banksia cone.

You can see more of Tracy’s work on her website.

This program is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

My upcoming exhibition at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery has got me thinking beyond paintings and drawings headed for a wall.  There is a joy in moving my painted cloud props on sticks around in my still life set ups and it has been fun to dabble in the beginnings of animation and think of ideas around installation too. Since hearing Damian Gascoigne, Genevieve Carroll and Locust Jones talk with Emma Collerton at The Artist as Animator exhibition at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, I have started to play with stop motion reels of some of my existing charcoal drawings.  Here’s as simple as it gets - some of my drawings in a reel posted into my instagram. It is enlivening to think of possibilities when seeing these drawings of mine somehow move from one still to the next.
 
This program is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

My thoughts on possibilities for my upcoming exhibition are extending from my paintings and drawings.  With the recent studio visit here by Bathurst Regional Art Gallery Curator, Emma Collerton and Audience Engagement Officer, Julian Woods, I have been thinking about how I could work with the Gallery to play with an installation in this exhibition. I am stimulated by Emma being open to possibilities.  Then bouncing the idea of an installation with fellow artists, Kiata Mason, my phone-an-artist/cousin regular and Karen Golland, here in my studio earlier this week, I am enthused  by their encouragements of playing with opportunities that may come. 

Imagining possibilities, I’m thinking about how some of my creative process could be suggested within the gallery curation.  Could I set up a still life in-situ with stacked furniture, glass top and lighting to play with shadows and reflections?  Could my kid’s plastic animal toys rest on nails on the gallery walls? Could my shoebox tripod still life set with its finds from my youngest’s display shelf of horror come to play? Could my cloud painting props on skewers come play in a still life set up? Could my canvas’ prepped with just the yellow ochre ground be intermixed with finished pieces? Or maybe, I could paint a yellow ochre ground onto the gallery wall. 
​
And seeing the current CEL exhibition, Artist and Animator at Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, I think about creating an animation of my drawings of wombats or wallaby scats? Which makes me think - where could those creatures travel?
 
This program is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

I am thrown into thinking more about how my works come about. I am interested in the process, how one work leads to more and one series propels the next. And I am interested in how other artists works come in to influence the work either consciously or subconsciously.

In many recent works I have been cognisant of playing with the yellow ochre ground. I have been leaving present this ground through abstracted strips, objects and flickers within many of the works in this series. This play has been ongoing and evolving for me since studying painting at ANU. There, in my first meeting with Supervisor Ruth Waller, she asked, had I thought to paint grounds in my work.

For one work on the way on the easel in this image above, I decided early on in its making to leave much of the suggested interior walls, floor and ceiling pretty much as is, as the ground.  On top of this ground, I would paint and draw in selected objects and parts of the scene. It did not occur to me at the time, not until talking through this work with my cousin Kiata Mason, that I could as well have come to a similar work if I had looked at Matisse’s “the red studio” and sought to make a work influenced by it. No doubt, like a Beetles song, Matisse’s work is imprinted in my subconscious. As is many others works shaped by his influence. Experienced during my latest exhibition outing with the kids in tow at the Bathurst Regional Art Gallery was Brett Whiteley’s Drawing is Everything exhibition - just one case in point.
​
This program is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

​My computer glitched … then died … after ... my backup died. My files were lost for some time. Partially resurrected un-titled and un-ordered, I have spent an inordinate number of hours delving into the enormous virtual haystacks. It has impacted a load and resulted in me posting much less than I had planned for. What use to take just a second to access, has me now re-building or re-writing in many instances. Some of this blog, as an example, is still lost. I had not yet posted the series of blog posts drafted on the computer before the glitch and death incident. I can’t remember what all the posts were about, but there were some general musings in the studio and references to doings including Art in the Park with my youngest, heading out to Wayout Art Space in Kandos and Bathurst Regional Art Gallery staff coming out here for a studio visit.  All very hearty.

But the work in my studio has been plodding along in the background.  It happens in fits and spurts, along with the jumble of life with family, community, and work. I have come to accept that deadlines, as stressful as they can be, work for me to keep my head in and on track. They have been integral to my cycle of making. It works for me too to hang out with the studio dogs. Pictured here, I’m sitting back, pondering a painting on the way on the easel as Nim and Mr Barry Fox show off their lazing finesse. 

This program is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

My last series of works Paintings within Paintings involved my paintings painted back into new paintings.  Some of the essence of that series is captured within Rebecca Wilson’s catalogue writing on that series.

​With this current body of work, I am back to playing with many of my still life treasured regulars, finds from my daily walks with the pooches, my kids toys and domestic objects from my home. Wondering if a painting within a painting would appear along the way, but with no direct plans made, a moment arrived today like the heavens opening and the downpour coming. Unbeknown to me, my painting in progress well on the way called out for a painting within a painting.  This time it was a variant on my painting within a painting theme.  In respect to my last series, I painted existing paintings of mine back into new paintings of mine.  In my painting today in keeping with my still life play, I painted a painting prop that was then inserted in my still life theatre.  And just like that, like the weather we are swallowing from the current deluge of rains and flooding, a painted cloud on a stick was inserted into my still life set up.  With its shadow, they joined the carousel of measuring ducks taking my kids toys and a banksia cone for a merry-go-round play.  
 
In creating in this way, I think back on when I was studying painting at ANU.  There, I was drawn to the work of contemporary Australian artist Amanda Marbug. She makes scenes with plasticine models she has formed before photographing and finally painting depictions of her laboured still life theatres. In a similar but different vein Jakub Tomas from the Czech Republic has a process where he creates still life scenes from collaging the cutting out of 2D images, before creating paintings of his mashed scenarios.  The physicality of this way of working, with still life incorporating the installation of the handmade enlivened me when Jakub and I painted side by side in studios three storeys up in an old monastery during a residency at CAMAC Marnay-sur-Seine in France.  A little of this residency experience is captured in my CAMAC blog of this time.  These creative process’ also send me back to look again at some of the early 20th century movements that explored with the practice of collaging from Braque’s and Picasso’s assemblages in their cubist ways evoking dimensionality to the socially critical work of Hannah Höch’s with her forays within the Dada movement.  And all these make me think too of trompe l'oeil and standing in front of artist Louis-Léopold Boilly, painting of the same name in the Louvre during my pre-covid residency travels abroad.
 
I could have just painted the cloud into my painting without such a handmade painted prop in the still life set up, but the physicality and the slowness of the process felt right. Some of the beauty of painting and still life is the joy netted in playing, the joy in the process not just through the delicious materiality of painting but in the set-up and theatre of the still life too.  I like that through the process of creating this particular painting, a novel way of working for me materialises.  I like that there was a clear moment of its birth, through the creative process. I like too that it cycles in but builds from my last series of paintings within paintings.  With all creation, I recognise that ideas do not arrive in isolation, but their conception is because I interact in this world and am influenced by what is in front of me and has come before me. I like that I am part of a lineage, where I see linkages to similar ways of working with contemporary and historical artists.  But from this lineage it is exciting to experience departure and uniqueness too.  In creating a new 2D painting that becomes a 3D prop set created for a painting I am in the process of painting there is a distinctiveness in this process too.  And then there are the still life paintings themselves with their possibilities of ambiguity and intrigue through both their materiality and conceptualisation.
 
I think too about the title of this body of work, Cycle.  Not only does it relate to my ideas of nature and culture coalescing, but it relates to my creative process.  Within each of my series of works (made in moments of time during residencies or preceding exhibition deadlines) there is repetition from the cycles before; there are iterative tendencies within the series; and there is experimentation and tangents along with new ways of working and growth too.  The evolution of my new works builds from my existing works with the continual adaption of both reworked and new ideas. Whilst I paint, I have been re-listening to Maria Stoljar’s Talking with Painters interviews and I relate to William Mackinnon’s (Ep 94 and 38) experiences and expressions to “trust in the process that something interesting is going to come out”, that “there is a mysterious element and a work effort element” and that “one work really leads to two more”.
 
I think about how my body of work with this title, Cycle relates to the titles and bodies of work of two other series of works that will be exhibited in Bathurst Regional Art Gallery at the same time with The Hassell Collection: Sidney Nolan - Drought series; and Robert Hirschmann: Rising Moon series.  I think of how the moon and droughts cycle and how La Niña is currently being experienced in eastern Australia.  It interests me that I am making this body of work through a La Niña event, how this event may shape my series and how these works within my series may converse with the two other artist’s series. 
​
This program is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW

With a Create NSW contract signed, handmade canvases and frames arriving at my door and initial images and text sent into Bathurst Regional Art Gallery (BRAG) for my upcoming exhibition ‘Cycle’ opening 8 April 2022, I am back in the cycle of creating new works for a series to be exhibited.  At the same time BRAG will present The Hassall Collection: Sidney Nolan – Drought Paintings, and Robert Hirschmann: Rising Moon. 
 
I’ve also detoured this week to Kandos meeting up with one of my UNSW honours artist buddies at her Cloudbough Residency there - where it was fun to draw together.  We headed to WAYOUT Art Space too to meet up with the Program Manager & Artist Liaison to check out the space and possibilities.  It was a pumping artist hub with the Sunflower Collective installing their exhibition (opening this Saturday 11 December at 3pm) and regional artist drop-ins coinciding.  And so, another contract was signed this week.  This time with WAYOUT Art Space on behalf of Artists from the 2019 UNSW Honours cohort ‘Grey Foundations’ exhibition scheduled for the end of 2022.

Pictured here is one of my latest paintings just out of my studio. – Big red cup, which is actually just a littley of a work at 15 x 15 cm. This work is now with a mix of others from diverse artists at Gallery of Small Things – worth a click their way – as they are online always, as well as being the total gem that they are in Canberra. https://www.galleryofsmallthings.com
 
Loving the red cup, my latest op-shop find.  I have no doubt it will make an appearance along with some other household treasures, finds from my daily walks with my four legged friends and my loved kids toys all mixed up with this latest series of works evolving as part of Cycle.  
​
This program is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

​My solo exhibition Paintings within Paintings has left the studio (or the family room – as the case was - I wanted to work in the house where my people and life are and where the concrete floor accepts my paint splatter and warms the pooches).  

These works and more shown here are being hung at Project Gallery 90.  Paintings within Paintings is on from tomorrow 27 May 2021, so I must thank Katie Hopkinson-Pointer for allowing me this opportunity.  It is my first solo exhibition in Sydney.

My Home residency program is proudly funded by the NSW Government through Arts Restart via Orana Arts Inc. 
​

I’m in the pointy end of my Home residency. All my works for my Paintings within Paintings solo exhibition at Project Gallery 90 are finished and the catalogue for this show is now up on the Project Gallery 90 website.  
​
Rebecca Wilson writes “In this body of work, armchairs and suitcases often take on the qualities of what would otherwise be the ‘sitter’ in Mason’s constructed scenes.  Pieces of furniture hold their place, almost exerting a personality as they create conversations and tensions between the other objects within the works and the viewer is invited to interpret this discourse”.  

​It has been terrific to be able to work with a writer for this catalogue.  She made me think and re-think and work hard with her pointed questions. – thank you Rebecca.  A painter and author, check out The Kate Kelly Collection on the Rebecca Wilson website.

My Home residency program is proudly funded by the NSW Government through Arts Restart via Orana Arts Inc. 

​This weekend just gone I popped out to Art in the Park, Bathurst stepping in for Rachel to do the meet and greet and supporting Heather Dunn pictured here giving a plein air tapestry demonstration – yes you heard it right – plein air tapestry is a thing!  I know it looks nice here but it was C O L D.  Gold stars to all! You can check out more of Heather’s doings on her website https://www.heatherdunnartist.com.au
​ 
Art in the Park, Bathurst is an artist initiative, a free community event open to the public that runs on the third Sunday of the month  from 2-4, currently meeting on the banks of the Wambool, Macquarie River.  Monthly details are posted on their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Art-In-The-Park-Machattie-Park-Bathurst-650769108393752
 
I’m grateful that I was able to present at last month’s Art in the Park.  It was there whilst giving an art demonstration/presentation about my Home residency - painting my paintings back into my paintings that one of the attendees there reminded me of the concept of the image repeated in itself.  Being also reminded of the French term mise en abyme by Project Gallery 90 (where many of my Home residency works will be soon as part of my solo exhibition there opening on 27 May), I also remember being awakened to this term on my French residency in 2017.  There, I began to paint still life like framed set ups in my work, before returning home to paint my paintings in my paintings.  But thinking about this concept, it’s been niggling with me for a while. I remember playing with this concept in photography when my first born was just a baby and she’s an adult now.  It’s good to get out and chat and exchange.
 
My Home residency program is proudly funded by the NSW Government through Arts Restart via Orana Arts Inc. 

.There are many benefits of putting in a grant application including doing some concerted planning at the beginning of a project and putting together a calendar.  It’s great to be forced into it because then it gets done! 
 
And with this calendar it seems I am on-track timewise at this point, which is a relief because I have actually struggled to be and keep on track in this residency with of course the rest of life happening.  I am very grateful for my family, friends and work – all those around me for making some allowances – thank you!
 
I have also continued on a track conceptually, revisiting works from previous residencies and program and re-working them into my new works, where new dialogues have emerged.  Painting paintings in paintings has led to some experimentation and play both: connecting the original painting within a new composition; and with meanings within the works. An example is: what happens when you mix a regenerating eroded landscape with mining scars with an interior such as in ‘Mulling expedition’ (on the way on the easel in this image above)? Can placing a chair in-front of a landscape painting suggest that the artist is or for the viewer to: think about the concept of landscape.  Can such a painting connect concepts of nature and culture?
 
So fortunate to have this current opportunity through Orana Arts offering their Restart Grant to regional artists across NSW.   It is really helpful not just for the financial assistance but for the structure it presents keeping me on my own meandering track.
 
This program is proudly funded by the NSW Government through Arts Restart.

I continue painting paintings from previous residencies in paintings during this Home residency and this week a few of my works from previous residencies arrived at destinations new. 
 
My Bundanon residency work ‘A Rhythm of wombats’ has travelled to Montsalvat for the Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Art 2021.  Truly delighted to have this work selected for this prize and chuffed that it is with the mix of amazing artworks there.  Thanks to all there and I must say thanks to Anna Glynn who will represent me at the opening.  We’ve been in a shared residency before with Art of Threatened Species.  She’s pretty good at pinking it up and you can check out some of her amazing work on the Mt Kaputar Giant Pink Slug here https://annaglynn.com/ArtOfThreatenedSpecies.html The Nillumbik Prize for Contemporary Art  opens 6 May and runs to 1 July. 
 
With this work on paper out and about, I return to search for the strips of water colour squares that I pre-prepared in 2019.  Finding three left, I start to think about what next will appear on these during this Home residency of mine. 
 
And an older work of mine from another residency – my Centre d’art Marnay Art Centre residency in France 2017 – came out of the studio to hang out closer to home at the new Platform Arts Hub Blayney.  It seemed apt to pick ‘Pigeon Down’ (image here) as one of my works for the ‘At the Station’ exhibition on until 30 May at this railway platform gallery.  I came across this dead pigeon on the first day of that residency.  At the end, it was given a good farewell back by the river by the artists from this shared time .  
 
Revisiting my blog archives from this time in November 2017 brings back memories  … “ My studio at this residency in Camac, Marnay-sur-Seine has been packed up and I have gone (nearly) …  I am sure to carry with me many experiences like the rush of the launch of the pigeons from the tower above, the bells chiming on the hour and half, the slow whoop of the swans as they fly by my window, the amazing food and good wine too, the earie closeness of the nuclear power plant, the what must be 400 year old oaks up the hill, the spiral stairs up three floor climbed daily, the shooters presence, the marks left from centuries gone, the immenseness of my studio and amazing side tower, the journeying with the wonderful group of artists from all corners of the globe and the locals too, who so warmly welcomed us to the fold, but most of all I think thanks to this time, this place and these people, I will take with me the sense that I really have been in the present.“
 
This Home residency program is proudly funded by the NSW Government through Arts Restart via Orana Arts Inc. 

You never know what will happen when you put your doings or ideas and creations out into the world.  

My first Instagram post about this Home project did something so wonderful and unexpected.  It prompted Jen, one of my treasured buddies from our honours year at UNSW in 2019 to send me a connector thread through the aether.  So now we are in this Home residency thing together apart, me here at home and she in her home exchanging ideas and images and helping to motivate and keep each other laughing. I love so much of the ambiguity and creative juices she releases into her work.  Some of her work can be checked out here https://www.instagram.com/jenfriendland/
 
I’m also sharing always back and forth with my cousin Kiata Mason, whose work is a treasure trove, currently at A K Bellinger Gallery and is featured in Still Life a book by Amber Creswell Bell just a couple of days ago.  You can check out her work with these current doings and more here https://www.instagram.com/kiatamasonart/
 
There’s a back and forth with Wart too who’s on fire with her flamingos from our time together during our Bundanon Artist in Residence programs.  They are planning an outing with her solo show coming up in June 2021 so watch out for notice of their flight https://www.bundanon.com.au/residents/wart/
 
To be part of supportive structures and communities and connect with amazing artist people has been such a valuable thing in the residencies and programs I have been part of.  And I’m feeling it here in this Home Residency, buoyed by amazing regional artists from this neck of the woods. So yummy to be included in an egg tempura making session just up the road last weekend, my first dabble – cheers all.
 
To be with a posse of people connecting, sharing, making me think and re-think and warming me up always is too good.  And so fortunate to have this current opportunity through Orana Arts supporting regional artists across NSW.   This program is proudly funded by the NSW Government through Arts Restart.

​To paint my paintings in my paintings I have set up still life and interior ideas in front of me here in my home.  But with the much yearned for duck away for a couple of nights of family camping with friends and pooches came the opportunity to play elsewhere.  We travelled from Wiradjuri country through Dharug country to Gundungurra country and I brought with me a little painting I had painted in a residency in France back in 2017.  With assistants all round, my little painting was installed with tents in view, in the hall, by the canoes, on the outdoor seating, hooked on the gate and positioned in the trees.
 
With this idea I will be taking a painting with me to the up-coming Art in the Park, Bathurst event this Sunday 18 April at 2pm till 4pm on the banks of the Wambool, Macquarie River near the corner of River Road and Stephen’s Lane Kelso.  Art in the Park is a monthly artist initiated activity on the third Sunday of the Month, free to the public, where any and all can come and create. 
 
Here I will be sharing about this series of work I am creating in this self-directed Home residency program.  More on this event can be found here:
artsoutwest.org.au/events/art-in-the-park-feauring-nic-mason/
 
This program is proudly funded by the NSW Government through Arts Restart via Orana Arts Inc. 

In looking at some of the work I had created over the last five years, I decided to paint some of my older paintings in my current paintings.  Here, I’m painting a scene I set up in the house with a chair and a stool and the idea of a work from before.  
 
In looking at past work, I found when I re-drew or re-painted, the act helped me remember ideas or feelings or learnings or understandings gained from the time before.  With this work, I remember painting the original painting featured in this painting and being enlivened by making loose line marks that created the bag and shoes of the Bilby.  And so I continue this play echoing loose lines into the marking and the making of the chair.  And I like the disruption left where the wall interrupts the legs of chair. Sometimes painting is a joy.
 
This program is proudly funded by the NSW Government through Arts Restart via Orana Arts Inc.