​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. 
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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.  
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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
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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.