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.