From the sidelines it felt like alchemy.  Looking at the mix of light as it changed throughout the shoot.  Brilliant.
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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.