 On the 2016 bandwagon, I started a blog 10 years ago. Looking back at it I am reminded that …
A 2 mt brown snake visited my studio where I was working on my first solo exhibition WILD set for Cowra Regional Art Gallery. Tracey Callinan, then of Arts OutWest opened the show where the generous late Tracy Sorensen wrote in her essay of this exhibition “… the beauty amidst the not-quite-right lies at the heart of Nic Mason’s paintings …” http://www.nicmasonartist.com/blog/archives/01-2016 It’s the only snake I’ve seen on this property in over 10 years of living here – there’s been way more blue tongues, echidnas, gangs gangs and a wisdom of wombats along with daily macropods in amongst the white gums and wallaby flats of these Wiradjuri lands that I love. I wrote of my time back then “ … So far, I’ve thought lots and I’ve pretty much created a painting a day. My plan is turn up every day to my studio, put in a good day’s work, live with my mistakes and learn as I go, walk the dog, love my family and just see what happens with my art …” I couldn’t hold back the tide to paint, resigning from my work in Conservation and Land Management working as a Senior Project Officer for National Parks and Wildlife Service and headed back to studies, this time at the Australian National University in Canberra. With post graduate studies in the painting workshop, my supervisor Ruth Waller introduced me to painting a ground into my work and much more. Animal skulls, my red bag and a doll from my kid’s great gran were regulars in my studio and on my canvases. My uni practice led project Exploring still life painting as a symbolic or metaphoric vehicle for contemplating issues of environmental loss led me to studying in the Collections Study Room at the National Gallery of Australia (spending time with a Morandi and Auerbach), the CSIRO’s Australian National Wildlife Collection (drawing directly from their collection), and borrowing skulls from Ray Mjadwesch under his licence with National Parks and Wildlife Service. http://www.nicmasonartist.com/blog/archives/10-2016 The Calleen Art Award, the Korea Australia Arts Foundation KAAF Art Prize, the ANU School of Art Drawing Prize and several other art prizes included my work in their mixes. And I was on my way working towards more bodies of work including STILL my next solo exhibition set for early 2017 where I was immersed in community as a Director of Tablelands Artists Cooperative Gallery. I headed to Carcoar for a portrait workshop led by David Newman White and I also led a few workshops of my own with primary students up at Hill End Public School, O’Connell Public School and Cowra Regional Arts Gallery. Intense planning too was happening behind the scenes in the lead up to my six-month 2017 artist residency experiences in France heading there with my family of five. I was giving things a crack, and it was all go. It feels like it was so long ago and just yesterday too as the memories come flooding back. image: Nic Mason, Red bag what, 2016, oil on canvas, 40 x 40 cm, private collection  I have taste tested working a little differently this year. I am hankering to change up my practice to be kinder to all involved – including me. Surely, I can morph away from my ridiculous patterns of month-long well into the night painting spurts. These nights are, not surprisingly, not highly conducive to the rest of my life.
I am curious to figure out how to work differently. My habitual deadline cram is under review, and I can feel a transition coming on. Bodies of work of mine were ready to jump well in advance for three significant exhibitions I was part of in 2025 each showing new work of mine. The dates of these exhibitions were all set independently of me making of these bodies of work within larger bodies of work, which were then put forward for these exhibitions:
The Duo exhibition Nic + Rebecca opened early in 2025 setting the scene. Being back in Canberra and reconnecting with fellow students and ANU teachers from my post-graduate studies there in 2016/17 was hearty as was pairing up with Rebecca Dowling for this exhibition. Since my solo exhibition with Anne Masters of Gallery of Small Things at the CSIRO Gallery in 2018 it’s been a joy to exhibit with Anne. Anne said in her speech, “When Nic and I were chatting … she was quite moved that Rebecca had responded to her Squatters residency works. The butter yellows and blues from Rebecca’s ceramics as well as the domestic objects look like they have literally stepped out of Nic’s interior series and off the shelf or table. It’s serendipitous and that’s what I like when you bring two artists together with an idea but also an open brief to make magic … It’s truly the perfect pairing.” However, my ways of working this year have not all been plain sailing. Since my first solo exhibition in Cowra Regional Art Gallery in 2016, I have had a practice of working back-to-back creating bodies of work for deadlines right up until the 24th hour and then crashing. The relief in including different ways of working this year, whilst having gallery support, has been palpable. Big thanks go to Allison Bellinger of A K Bellinger Gallery for working with me since 2017. With my latest body of work developing in my studio, she has been a steadfast gem, as I attempt to transition to new ways of working. Idealistically, I want most of my bodies of work completed 3 months before any deadline and/or I want to make bodies of work that then find their way out into the world. This less drama filled way of creating bodies of work is similar to how I have gone about submitting works for prizes. Depending on prize criteria, I have usually put forward individual works from bodies of works that have returned to me and are up for an additional showing. Hence, I generally have not painted specifically for prizes. I am thankful for opportunities to put forward works for prizes, getting my works out into the world. I am most thankful too to the judges who saw something in works of mine this year bestowing upon them awards for the:
Having work selected this year as a finalist in several national prizes has been hearty too including the:
Heading to the Muswellbrook Art Prize was totally fabulous this year not just to see this amazing exhibition. My work was selected alongside the work of my cousin Kiata Mason’s. So, the treat included spending time with Ki and Jenny (another cousin) whilst also meeting up with a posse of gorgeous artists whom I am in a thing with. Not myself without you is a group with Penne Fraser, Sophie Honess, Kate Hofman and me. We are figuring out making a body of work each beside each other. A yummy part of the process so far has been to swap works with each other. No doubt we will figure a residency and/or some visiting of each other to create some things in this process. And it was raucous fun to celebrate with Charmaine Pike winning the Muswellbrook Works on Paper prize. Ki and I also planned to do a thing together too. 2025 started well with the continuation of Conversations with Clarice Beckett at Orange Regional Gallery (ORG) until 23 March 2025, a project with the National Gallery of Australia. In 2025, the cohort of artists worked with the phenomenal team at ORG including being part of a panel discussion with the Curator Lucy Stranger. I too led some workshops at ORG for community with Cecilie Knowles. Each artist’s works for this exhibition was meant to number four. Upon working with Lucy, I asked her if it was ok if I completed several works from which she could curate whichever pieces from this body of work she wanted into this exhibition. Agreeably, she was up for it, and I end up creating over 30 works. She ended up selecting 4 works on boards and 3 configurations of 12 little works on cornflakes packaging. Different mini-series, arrangements and singular works from this body of work, then went on to show in 8 other prizes or exhibitions in 2025 such as Hidden Treasures and Here/Now both also at Orange Regional Gallery. The 30 plus works have almost all had a showing out in the world. Just one of the 10 mini-series of works on wooden board remains available for homing at the time of writing this. It was also a delight to see that an image of one of my works from Conversations with Clarice Beckett was reproduced in a February edition of Galah Weekly, the award-winning newsletter. It you don’t already subscribe; GALAH PRESS is a beauty. Along with the Conversations with Clarice Beckett public programming involving workshops, I returned to Cowra Regional Art Gallery to run another painting and drawing workshop and also The Uncooperative, the most excellent afterschool youth program in Kandos at WAYOUT, a Cementa Initiative, to lead a painting workshop on cardboard. Yum! I also led a workshop at Bathurst High as part of their BLOCKFEST program. However, this was part of my work as a part-time Arts Worker with Arts OutWest. In my role in 2025 at Arts OutWest, along with a myriad of projects on the go, I embraced working within the new 2025 partnership of Arts OutWest with The Foundations, Portland and Harrie Fasher Studios. Given my timely 2024 Artist in Residence program at The Squatter’s Cottage, The Foundations, Portland, my existing connection with this place and its people has made it a joy to work behind the scenes supporting this program and the cohort of 2025 Artists in Residence at The Foundations. To sum up the year in numbers, my works formed part of over 20 exhibitions, about half of which were in a regional gallery, 4 prizes have been awarded and I participated in a few public programs. Lots on as usual. What’s in store for early 2026? Three exhibitions which include my works are continuing from 2025:
I am co-curating with Steven Cavanagh Domestic Dreams at WAYOUT, Kandos scheduled for March 2026 with many talented artists with diverse voices from the Central West. It will be a big year on the home front with my youngest in his final HSC year. His extraordinary talent buoyed by daily practice can be spied a little from his National Art School Year 11 HSC intensive program. Yes – he’s studying art and science too! I imagine we'll continue to head to Art in the Park which he's been drawing at since he was 8. We’ll be adjusting too to my partner’s, his father’s new work/life schedule with changes on the horizon. I thank them endlessly and my other children too, fledging with gusto, for their continued support. No doubt, my thoughts questioning what to create, why I create, how I create, my expression in responding to the world as I see it and feel it will continue to guide my work. I envisage continuing to walk in the regenerating bush around me in Napoleon Reef, in Wiradjuri Country, as I envisage continuing to play with and set up scenes in my studio. Returning just now to my artist statement I see things in things; no doubt this too will continue to morph as my work morphs through time and with place. Thanks for your interest in my art practice, I wish you all the best as we head into 2026. Nic Mason image: N Mason, Self-portrait at The Squatters Residency Diptych, 53 cm x 86 cm  Tracy Sorensen created splendidly, with moral ambition energising her talents as a writer and craftivist. I feel privileged to have spent time with her as a colleague in the arts and as a friend. I met Tracy more than 10 years ago through her partner Steve Woodhall. Steve and I both worked at the time in national parks.
Many of the creative processes she devoted herself to, in making sense of her world and connecting with others were engaging, fun and nuts too. Explaining the bits crocheted by her of her internal guts and more, Tracy would pause just a little, to check in, that I was up for more. I loved her way of seeing things and doing things. We shared an interest in the more-than-human-world. I stole time in the old plum grove hammock to read her first book, The Lucky Galah, hot off the presses. Her second, The Vitals, was wolfed down while I was holed up in bed. All domestic duties stopped and not much else happened in life when I was in the thick of her books. Published by Pan Macmillan and Picador / Pan Macmillan in 2018 and 2023 respectively, her books were highly respected by literary peers and received great acclaim. The Lucky Galah was long listed for the Miles Franklin Literary Award 2018. With Australian imagery evoked, her books are gold and total treats to read. They are so good too, for anyone interested in thinking about themselves and their world in new ways. I was honoured that Tracy wrote the essays for my solo art exhibitions in Bathurst Regional Art Gallery in 2022 and Cowra Regional Art Gallery in 2016. Wholesomely and cleverly, she wrote from her perspective and experience of spending time with my art and life too “… Nim the tall kelpie and Mr Barry Fox the short collie cross are also present and from time to time actively participate in the conversation …”. Weaving contemporary academic concepts from feminist scholar Donna Haraway and new materialist philosopher Jane Bennett, Tracy translates complex ideas into accessible stories. She straps the reader into her thought process, offering engaging and apt perspectives on her interpretation of my work. She got it. Not only a playful, highly intelligent big thinker who could take in complex ideas and communicate them into meal sized appetising portions; Tracy was a creative maker (even adept at the likes of spinning Mr Barry Fox’s excess moulted fur), an organiser, collaborator and a supporter too. Tracy was enormously encouraging of my being in the arts and the validity of it. She generously invited me and many others to participate in stimulating opportunities. Examples include the Charles Sturt University Creative Circle Listening in the Anthropocene exhibition and events in 2020 and painting the white wallaroo of Wahluu Mount Panorama for the 200 Plants and Animals exhibition by the Bathurst Community Climate Change Network that she curated in 2015. She had a posse of my works on her walls. Since drawing Tracy at her kitchen table for the first time years ago, my thoughts have percolated on portrait possibilities of her. The process of painting Tracy’s portrait enabled us to create in each other’s company over numerous sittings during an almost five-month period over 2024 and 2025. I drew and painted away whilst she stitched Bathurst’s endangered purple copper butterflies, both of us being in the moment. Despite the grimness of realities, in true Tracy form throughout these sittings she was sparky, enquiring, generous, funny and fun too. Being the delightful character that she was, Tracy did not hold back expressing her fascination at seeing likenesses appear from the charisma of mark making. I loved that she leant into the process of me painting her portrait. Her suggestions of some of the things that represented her dear loved ones making it onto the shelves in the work including her mum Yvonne’s Dalek, her sister Deb’s horse and Steve’s cameras were absolutely welcome. We talked too about some kind of appearance of Bertie, her beloved deceased pooch. His legs ended up getting a shoe in. With just a bit of Lucky the Galah coming into the scene along with Tracy’s crocheted guts and large intestine strewn forth, she expressed appreciation in their predicaments in the painting. I couldn’t help myself but elevate her every-day tea cosy that she crafted. It became a kind of portrait on the wall. She expressed satisfaction that her old wallpaper sample made-the-cut and her side table represented both itself and developed some creature like personality with its skinny legs and boxy head. If - by being in the world, this portrait adds to Tracy and her work being considered, cherished and treasured more than they already are - then this would add to the joy of its process. Tracy has been exceptionally generous with this portrait, being open to it journeying wherever I guide it. For me, regardless of what happens with the portrait from here, I’ve already been blessed with the good stuff - precious time just hanging out, making, connecting and chatting with Tracy in her lounge room. The last sitting I had with Tracy, was after her portrait painting was finished. I returned to drawing her in charcoal whilst she continued with her stitched butterflies. It was hearty to just keep on chatting and creating away. Thanks Tracy,. You will be sorely missed and you will continue to be adored. Tracy passed away Monday 5th of May 2025. Her funeral is being held Friday 16th of May 2025 at 2 pm at the crematorium in Bathurst. Sending much love and care to Steve, Yvonne, Deb and family and to all those who loved Tracy. Image: Nicola Mason, Berties feet, the tea cosy, Lucky the Galah, Steve’s cameras, Bunny, Deb’s horse, the remains of the old wallpaper, mum’s Dalek and Tracy Sorensen with her vitals crocheted and strewn whilst selecting threads to aptly stitch endangered Bathurst Purple Copper Butterfly eggs and more, 2025, acrylic on canvas, 100 x 100 cm. Links: Arts OutWest, Vale Tracy Sorensen Nicola Mason Cycle catalogue, Bathurst Regional Art Gallery 9 April – 5 June 2022  A last cuppa in the sun on the side steps with Bird and Harrie is signalling the end, before the last spurts of fitness and photos take over the rest of the day.
With the dried mandarin peel left for the next fire maker, a little painting is entrusted to the walls to continuing hanging with all the others artist’s works here. And with this token I want to say sincerely - thank you - to so many who have enabled me being in this Residency and made my time here so rich. Thank you to The Squatters Residency, The Annexe, The Foundations, Harrie Fasher Studio, Harrie Fasher, Bird, T C Overson, Rich and Kellie Evans, Annabel Mason, Andrew Neville and the Ant Fitness community and Portland lovely locals too including Cheryl, Monique, Su and Bess and her family too. Thanks to my workplaces for my absenteeism. And big thanks to my beautiful family. Thank you. I head back into the thick of life again.  There is a cold snap in the air as I head out in the morning sun, I’m feeling a little sad for the end of the residency is nigh.
I started a last painting and returned to others dotted around the walls. I missed Art in the Park today, a monthly regular on the family calendar, but I get a visit by my eldest and her love. Maybe they’ll live near here, near us one day. We take a drive looking at this gorgeous town and then out near Mount Piper coal powered station too – it’s just 4 km away and I wonder what the future will hold for their lives.  My acrylic paints came out to today with the 25-postcard pack bought at the local art supply store. In the studio, at the kitchen table, in the sunroom, the bathroom and the big bed/studio room I have been encouraged by the imaginary creatures in the peeling paint and paper. Some quick responsive studies resulted. And then I stuck them up in-situ. Totally refreshing after labouring over many of my other works here.
There was also a pop into The Glen Museum here at The Foundations. Some gorgeous collection material piqued my interest as Fay leads me round. https://thefoundations.com.au/experiences/the-glen-museum/ Beside the Museum my heart was held still looking at the memorial of the forty-five workers who died just going to work at the cement works, associated quarries and mine. Awful. I know the plan was to batten down the hatches, but I had to head away again with a quick visit home to see family that came with the trip to the local government election polling station back in the Bathurst Regional Council area.  I woke totally happy today. I just love this residency. I talked lots with loved artist friends Jen and Wart and sorted some upcoming Cementa Festival get-together plans. Annabel gorgeously popped back in too. I set myself the task to finish the self-portrait and the self-portrait then painted back into the next painting. I did stay up till after midnight but just didn’t quite get there. My self-portrait just took a b’zillion times longer than I had planned it to take. So, I’ve put the painting in a painting aside for ’Ron.
 The mirror ended up in the sunroom and there was self-portrait action all day, except during the boxing class or the studio visit by another gorgeous local and then there was lots of talking on the phone with family too.
 A lot of creature stuff has happened today.
Starting with the early-bird fitness session Bird (the dog) got in a good lick at an opportune moment when I was down with weights in my hand. Thanks Bird. Then, I realised the hall stand I was focusing on in my small charcoal drawing had become some kind of long-legged creature like being impersonating the faces and creatures all around in the peeling paint. I do love a bit of pareidolia – perceiving something more on some nebulous stimuli. In preparation for painting my self-portrait, I moved the furniture around a lot today too. It is a thing I do. I was thinking of painting a painting of myself in a painting and was trying to figure out where my self-portrait painting would go into the next scene. I was also moving the bathroom mirror around in each room to figure out where to paint myself as well. Some more studio visits by some locals happened and I popped over to the local art supply store. I couldn’t help myself when I saw the little artist postcard pack – so fab to have stores like these in small towns – Portland does punch above its weight. Not too sure what will come of these cards, but they are totally cute. 
Coupled with the morning boxing fitness class at 9 was a view to some cow action out in the paddock. Not every residency has such bustle as this. After drawing by the lake with its morphing reflections alongside fellow artist Annabel Mason (who as an aside makes a very yummy quiche – thank you Annabel!), and before a drive through the back lanes of Portland (totally recommended if you are coming here) there was another walk with a local in The Common. The walk felt familiar today, like I was walking around the woodland at home checking out the hollows and burls as I like to do. I recognised some faves - flurries of flowering Hardenbergia amongst the white brittle gums as a family of white winged choughs call each other. The most unusual tree caught my imagination too. Think elephant foot base extending to a hand with elongated fingers reaching to the sky. I think of possibilities of how it grew over time and of others who have met and carried stories of this tree-being in their minds too. In the Squat today too, my little painting included a scene with two of my large drawings in it and a very welcoming rug.  Usually, it is fabulous waking up here with the light coming through the window – a slow snuggled contented wakeup, but last night’s wines were not the ones that help you sleep - it was a challenge to get up for the early bird fitness class this morning.
Following planking to finish off the routine this morning, I was then stretching to hang my Annexe drawings next to the window in the second bedroom/studio. These drawings became one on the wall after some consideration of hanging them with a gap, together or apart. They don’t join perfectly but have a repetition in the middle which I like coupled with the blue artist tape that seems to have become part of the drawing too. I work some more into the charcoal of this drawing. My other big drawing of this large studio/bedroom in the Squat is now finished too with the inclusion of my Annexe drawing depicted within it, and with a second sheet extending the drawing into its floor and beyond. My Instagram feed is inundated with fellow artists posts visiting Orange Regional Gallery’s current exhibition of Peter Godwin’s ‘Space light and time’. His attention to the edges reminds me of Fran O’Neill’s guidance there too in her Drawing Marathon show-and-tell of some works that enliven her. I see also that gorgeous local Tim Winter’s has an exhibition there. I can’t wait for a visit to see a little of both their worlds. Regional Galleries are soooo good. https://www.orange.nsw.gov.au/gallery/exhibitions/  An unplanned trip took me out of the Squat today again. It did enable the loveliness of seeing family again, but in the same breath, it is good to come back here to drawing and painting by myself. There is some talk of extending the residency a little (alongside some repair work here) and a possible return too. I have my hand up so high.
Dinner at the bowlo with some locals meant Nok’s yummy crispy fried eggplant was on my menu and then Harrie and Bird were in for a studio visit. She generously suggests extending my current drawing - like I had my other large ones when drawing as part of Fran O’Neill’s drawing marathon recently. Thanks Harrie. As I head off to sleep, I say goodnight to my bed friend favourites in the peeling paint of this space that I love.  I had to leave the Squat for much of today.
Hill End called – for I was opening the exhibitions of Heather Dunn’s ‘Response’ and Hui Selwood’s ‘From the Studio’ at Hill End Gallery. In the weeks leading up I had visited Heather’s studio, and it was good to see Hui’s studio too today and catch up with some Hill End happenings. Congratulations you two on this terrific exhibition. Their exhibition runs until 1 December 2024. If you have a chance to get up there, it is a treat to see their works chatting to each through mirrored lines and forms. https://www.instagram.com/hillendartscouncil/ After a detour home, I was back at the Squat getting my body moving with the start of a much bigger drawing and consideration of how to hang and possibly combine my large Annexe drawings too. Left image credit: of Hill End Art Gallery opening by Lenore Dunn  Finished today are a couple more little drawings. One of these had me imagining the rug on the cupboard, a friendly beast, through the lit door frame view. The other of these had me move into the emptiness of the spare studio/room where the light falls softly through the draped curtain. The characters on the ceiling of this room are a great match for the walls. Looking up is kind of like cloud watching with character forms gaining life in the imagination. I have stories that go with them -like that of the shy bilby-eared naked-turtle.
Along with my now regular health retreat number, I walked with a lovely local in The Portland Common – a 650-acre woodland where birdlife abounds. Thinking of it, I thought too of the walk with fellow artist residents, from my camac residency in France, where the forest up the hill held an old oak, hundreds of years old. There, the quiet was peppered with pops for it was hunting season. Here the birds make constant conversation. http://www.nicmasonartist.com/blog/archives/11-2017  Ducking next door to the Annexe for two sessions with Ant Fitness today - who knew the Squatters was a health retreat?
https://www.antfitness.com.au I feel 95% plus complete with a couple of little paintings today. Almost there. It is a challenge to capture light and resolve works. One of my paintings has ended up buttery and the other has some saturated yellow light in a room beyond. This made me think of the work of Caroline Walker who depicts women working - often through window scenes. Such fab work - so, I google a look of some of her beauties again.  Nails and hooks on the walls around have beaconed my little works to spots where they just belong. Returning to yesterday’s little morning painting, now that the light is streaming in again at that time, meant that I could finish where I started. This little work then found it’s place on the wall where the floral wallpaper recedes showing three layers of peeling paint. Next, it becomes part of the view in my latest drawing with the morning light billowing through the window. I imagine I could stay here for a very long time and not be sated for a view watching the changing light move around the room.
Today I found out a different interior work of mine has been selected for the inaugural Interior Art Prize at Weswal Gallery. Looking at the finalist list my name is next to Alison Mackay’s. We have had a couple of two-person interior exhibition’s together and she has an exhibition coming up at Olsen Annexe. I’d head there to see it and cheer her on, but I am here, so I am not. Go Alison! https://www.instagram.com/p/DAC90rMtmE3/ But I do head next door to the Annexe here where my day was split by joining the walking group with Ant Fitness. It was good to view back to the Foundations buildings from the other side of the limestone quarry turned colour-saturated dam.  The layers throughout this place are fodder for the imagination. I’ve been finding faces and creatures in the torn wallpaper and peeling paint and in the accumulation and reduction of stuff. So many things have been pulled off the walls here leaving their ghost prints behind. Flicking the books here, I’ve left open a page on the photographic work of Sophie Ristelhueber to think more on it. Traces of the past mix with her present where in one series she adds images of children on vacations in the 1950’s into the scenes of empty and abandoned homes.
My second little painting – another interior started today has been left till tomorrow morning’s light check-in again. Talking with my artist cousin Kiata on the phone - we talk about working towards a show together – likely an interior themed exhibition. She is fabulous so I am excited. My youngest teen with his friend in tow schooled today from The Annexe next door, which meant a lot of ducking back and forth. Some local friends popped in – curious of the old cottage and the work I am doing here, so a tour was on the cards. My Ugg boots were kindly dropped off by my partner and without his hotness remaining, I’ll be turning the electric blanket on tonight.  The Squatters has more than enough in its interior to hold me for a long time. I’m here for two weeks and I’m thinking I’ll batten down the hatches and try to not leave too much. But I must confess I’ve already been back home once. Next door might pull me a little too. In the lead up to this residency I thought I might return to drawing in the Annexe (another of The Foundations buildings). I was there recently with a bunch of gorgeous and brilliant artists during Fran O’Neill’s Drawing Marathon. Check out up coming art workshops through Harrie Fasher's 'Community and Workshops' page.
https://www.harriefasher.com.au/workshops-community But drawing there now is not looking so likely, for a gym – Ant Fitness has just relocated to the Annexe (due to development works happening elsewhere at The Foundations). My plan was also to be open to influence when here, so I’ve asked my youngest teen to bring me my runners. He’s staying tonight, cooking dinner with his friend for us and he'll be distance ed schooling from The Annexe tomorrow. It’s so good to be in a life friendly hearty residency - open to artist’s lives and circumstances. Thank you, Harrie, T C, Rich and Kellie. I’ve drawn more with charcoal today and pulled out the oil paints. I’m working small – intimate little works of interiors. Today’s work had me open the front and back doors to let in the light into the hall – the view through the view from where I have set up my easel. The wind howled but still I felt nestled inside. Open on the coffee table is one of the books I borrowed from the library – ‘Edward Hopper light and dark. It’s left open on ‘Sun in an empty room’. I’ve been watching the light and dark move through each room here at the Squatters. It is energising being here to look, think and respond.  The most I’ve ever seen together - thirty plus gang gang cockatoos farewelled me before I left home. And here blue-sky blossom is blowing in the warm winds. It’s Spring and it is the first day of my residency at The Squatters at The Foundations, in Portland on Wiradjuri land, central west NSW. Living only half an hour away, I have driven the road here many times, most recently with my youngest to his things and his friend living here. On this journey, my mind was taken back to my arrival at my camac residency at Marnay-sur-Seine in France. We drove the meandering roads through forests, over hills and down dales edging closer and closer to the imposing nuclear power plant vista. I felt my anxiety swell in the pit of my stomach. The view on my drive here seemed reminiscent, though this time it is Mount Piper coal powered station popping in and out of the vista. Residents I met there in Marnay-sur-Seine told me of their protests pre the nuclear plant and later of halting a chemical plant development near their homes. Here the opposition government has announced their proposal for Mount Piper to be one of seven coal power stations to transition to nuclear power plants. In Marnay-sur-Seine (and many of France’s villages, towns and cities), they live with the first Wednesday of the month midday civil defence siren. It is a practice drill, month in, month out, year in year out. With France’s 56 operable nuclear reactors, (the country with the second most reactors) there are about 4500 sirens placed throughout their country. It’s their norm.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_defense_siren#:~:text=It%20consists%20of%20about%204%2C500,8%20port%20single%20tone%20siren. Here, I hear just the creaking of the floorboards, a critter in the roof and the occasional woof of a town pooch, with today’s roaring winds drowning out all else. I’ve settled in straight away. It’s my first solo residency venture. All others have involved other artists doing their own things beside me. I have loved them (the residencies and the people), but I am also totally up for and eager to be doing this one solo. Inside The Squatters, my charcoal drawings by night have begun.  It was so lovely to visit Tim and Lynn Winters Lineage opening at the Peisley Street Gallery in Orange on the way home. It is an exhibition of the works of artists in four families of partners and siblings and across generations.
Post the Ironbark Residency, I play with photoshop to see if the series of photos I took in the hall without a tripod could be stacked and straightened up in some way and I finish off this part of my blog. I am questioned by my cousin, Kiata - thinking about my family ancestry in these parts, did it influence my work? I think so. It influenced my thoughts of this place and my responses to it, thinking about past presence and my presence here. I was really influenced by the now – by spending this time with my fellow residency peer Therese and of all the interactions and conversations with the locals, whilst thinking of the past. In being open to influence in this residency, I played with ideas that surprised me. I am not sure that I could have ever envisaged setting up site specific work with a plastic sheet. Coming back from this residency has also prompted me to head to my bookshelf to pick up a book I bought a while ago. I am now reading Stephen Gapps, Gudyarra, The first Wiradyuri War of Resistance - The Bathurst War 1822-1824. I see on the map that the Binyup people of the Wiradjuri nation lived in the region. I think of the elements interacting whilst I was there, of the mouse that nibbled my banana, of the water spewing forth unexpectedly from the wall tap and piddling to dry in the shower, of the fridge door opening and not just once, of the fan expunging its blades, of my autocorrected notes of hidden to forbidden, of the radio grey noise of the middle of the night, and of the plastic sheet breath and dance throughout this place. I am so thankful to all at the STAA who have been so responsive with their care of this place and us here. I am enlivened to keep working on the projects that I have started there. With just five nights there it went like the blink of the eye. I am enthused to head back there. The Ironbark Arts Residency Program is co-produced by Orana Arts Inc and the STAA.  Listening to my footsteps, I walk through the hall and from one room to the next. I think about the thousands of footsteps that have traversed through this building since its opening in 1880. I set up my tripod (a side of the road rescue) and photograph and video some ideas around presence in this place.
Women were forbidden to enter. I know back then, it was only men allowed here in the bar, but I still wonder if my great great grandmother Maryanne ever stepped foot in The Railway Hotel. We are shown the small room for women in The Railway Hotel. I imagine her daughter-in-law Edie, my great grandmother in Yee Lee’s general store (owned and operated by Wong War Lai and later by his son) down the road. I read Juanita Kwok’s 2019 paper Wonderful Wellington: The Longevity of the Chinese Community in Wellington, New South Wales. I think about the descendants of the Chinese diaspora living today, who like me, and my children may too be sixth or seventh generation Australian from these parts. It's our last day here at the Residency. It has been wonderful to share this time with Therese. She’s shared with me some of her responses to researching Jessie Hickman, The Lady Bushranger. Jessie would have been eighteen when my Granny was born. I haven’t managed to return to reading the book I bought with me - Rebecca Wilson’s Kate Kelly, the true Story of Ned Kelly’s little sister – giving air to Kate’s story from this male-oriented period of history. Kate was found dead in a waterhole further west near Forbes in 1898 ten years before my Granny was born. Later I stand looking over Burrendong Dam where my Granny’s ashes were spread and her sibling’s graves rest under the water. The Ironbark Arts Residency Program is co-produced by Orana Arts Inc and the STAA.  Today, the fifth day of the residency at The Railway Hotel, are our public presentations.
Therese reads her poetry. In centring her experiences with the history of this place, I am all ears. I set up my first public site-specific art installation in The Travellers Room of The Railway Hotel where I have been working. As flat as a pancake is how I would describe the plastic sheet this morning after dancing with the drafts since my arrival. I wonder, what will it be like for the installation at my presentation later today? I charcoal some more and lay my drawings and paintings out in conversation with this studio set up and some images on my laptop of the sheets in motion. Generously welcomed later at Kinkara studios, we feast on figs from a local tree, take in the old wooden ironing board alliance with the old printing presses and edge on our seats for the poetry reading. Thanks Tim, Lynn and Margrete too - you make this place in time so yummy. The Ironbark Arts Residency Program is co-produced by Orana Arts Inc and the STAA.  A third painting is on my easel. This time it is a view through the doors to what was once the bar here in The Railway Hotel.
The drafts in The Railway Hotel are intense. It’s difficult to stand on the plastic painters sheet supplied by the STAA to protect the floors. I have become so distracted and taken with the sheets that I have been setting up site-specific installations. I watch the sheets’ breath with the drafts and imagine their forms as beings in The Railway Hotel rooms and hall. The Ironbark Arts Residency Program is co-produced by Orana Arts Inc and the STAA.  The remains of a wedgetail eagle and the bones of a boar dot The Common where butterflies rise and ironbarks regenerate. Talk of an endangered purple pea piques my interest and I recognise the gold-digging churn of the land. It looks so familiar to where I live now – another recovering landscape from gold rush times. And I think of the stories my granny told of family members finding gold in their backyards. They lived near the legendary Potato Patch field with its tales of alluvial gold dug up like lumps of potatoes. That is all now under Burrendong Dam.
I am taken by the meat safe in one of the rows of the open-air museum. It’s like a funny character to me and kind of out of place with all the rusting farm equipment. Inside in Boehmes Hall is another clutter of domestic helpers from the past. I like some of the newer additions too, signalling the ongoing use of this place – like the turquoise chairs stacked waiting for the next meeting. I snap a picture of a mixmaster, who has done their duty – no doubt many Country Women’s Association cakes came through their beaters. We skirt around a derelict house, with its dilapidated outdoor dunny and mound of cement encased bottles. An upside-down sign with ‘the skin club’ adds to our unsettling. Thinking about this sign, I think of the ghost signs in town too - like the one atop what was once Yee Lee’s General Store. Today there is more local cheer from Marian at the café, Janet popping through from the Post Office next door, and the sunset from the Nunnery – many thanks to Tom for the tour and hospitality. And two little paintings are now on the easel as well – the portrait of the fan and of the light down the hall. The Ironbark Arts Residency Program is co-produced by Orana Arts Inc and the STAA.  In the middle of the night, I woke to the sound of something not right. As I raised my hand in questioning, no breeze was felt. On adjusting my vision to the darkness of the unfamiliar, a perplexing strange amiss had befallen the fan. In my acceptance of whatever oddity had occurred, I turned off the fan and went back to my stupor provoked by my month of persistent late nights.
This was the first night of my Ironbark Residency. On arrival we had been welcomed generously by the STAA in the form of Tom, Marian and Ian. Therese my residency peer and I had laughed a lot and stayed up late. We threw ourselves into the unsettling of this place. With vivid and eerie stories abound, I felt enlivened, and my goosebumps flared. She enacted her first dramatic impromptu spoken word performance. It was a ripper. The morning revealed the drama of the night. Plastic shards were splintered over the bed, within my bedding and even expelled under the door gap at the other side of the room. The fan blades had exploded. I am unharmed. There is no question – my openness to be influenced by this place and time has been roused. I am going to start with a portrait painting of the fan. The Ironbark Arts Residency Program is co-produced by Orana Arts Inc and the STAA. |
AuthorNic Mason Archives
January 2026
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