​After the batik making workshop this week here at Babaran Segaragunung Culture House (BSG), talk is on the table to meet up later with newly made workshop friends Kay and Suranto. The thought is to meet up at the opening of the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing in Sydney, where a series of my drawings of wombats from my last residency (at Bundanon) are rising from their burrows deep in my studio back home so they can hang out in the mix of all the others works from elsewhere. I look forward to both.
 
But for my last weekend in Indonesia, I have taken a solo trip from Jogja through Solo to Candi Sukuh at the foothills of Gunung Lawu.  It is a 15 Century temple I have heard much about during this time at BSG.  

As the mist rapids in, I think of the ‘unseen’ and intangible world and the rich stories of Bima from the Mahabharata Sanskrit epic, depicted in the stone relief in front of me (that is the logo for BSG and in this image above). I focus here on my exegesis for this ACICIS program, Breathing Furniturewhere I write:
 
“… My drawings also began to morph from their initial plein air searchings to integrating creature shadows suggestive of the kancil, the endemic Java mouse deer (Tragulus javanicus).  With its cleverness painted in Indonesian fables, I sought the kancil out at Gembira Loka Zoo, Jogjakarta.  In learning that this creature is also categorised as “Data Deficient” due to lack of information of its status on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List, I think it fitting that the kancil became just a shadow in my work.  Creature shadows occupied my mind through the wayang kulit shadow puppet shows with their morphing of characters such as the Giant Kala Marica who assumes the form of the beautiful golden deer through the Sanskrit epic of Ramayana as experienced at Sonobudoyo Museum, Jogjakarta.  With many morphing of the chairs’ shadows, I am also reflecting upon the connectedness of nature and culture in Javanese philosophy  …”
 
There is some reflection happening and no doubt much more of this will come in the months ahead.  This ACICIS Creative Arts and Design Professional Practicum has been a great opportunity for me to be mentored by extraordinary established international artists and work collaboratively in this cross-cultural setting at BSG.  My engagement skills have been refined and my outlook massaged by my learnings attained through the sharing of Javanese philosophies at BSG.  I am grateful for this growth experience and I hope to integrate these learnings within my life and practice as an artist. I have been left with a deep respect for all those at BSG and hope there has been mutuality in this exchange. I look forward to ongoing creative connections born of this time.
 
With this practicum coming to an end, I have a sense of joy that my Honours year at University of New South Wales will be complete.  The plan for the next chapter is to just to stay put for quite a bit with my loves at home and creatively outpour my learnings and reflections from my Honours year and ACICIS program. I look forward to being back home with my people and creatures and I’m thankful for them joining me on the beginning of this tale. So with this chapter closing in, big thanks go to all at BSG especially Nia, Ismoyo, Ika, Fina and Ibi.  Thanks to ACICIS and Universitas Sanata Dharma especially Elly, Oci and Dhea and all in the Sanata Dharma Language Centre and the cohort too - it has been awesome to be on this journey will you all. And thanks to the New Colombo Plan Mobility Grant. 

It was not until this week, my fourth week here that the air cleared and I realised the view from my balcony at Babaran Segaragunung Culture House sees directly to Mount Merapi. Excited, I walked back up the road. It’s a trek worn before, by the morning walk, saying hello and enthusiastically answering questions in my Bahasa Indonesian (born from the terrific intensive language learning stint at Universitas Santa Dharma as part of the ACICIS program) to locals out and curious of my being here. I make it to the rice field views of Merapi and once more, I pose for the obligatory group shots and selfies that I am randomly included in again. Only a few days after this image above was snapped, I woke to the news that Merapi had erupted again.  It was hardly noted by those from these parts.  And I write in my last ACICIS program Reflective Journal, Week 4 submission other impressions too:
 
“Through this internship / residency I have become more attuned to nature and culture and their oneness. Some of my impressions of this place have included the aesthetics of the dragonfly posed on the wall behind Ismoyo as creative process ideas are shared; the chorus of the frogs competing with the layered sermons of the three mosques encompassing; the chirps of the feasting flock of white-bellied munia or pipit padi interrupted by the bells and bellowing of the rice paddy worker; the belly of Mount Merapi under me as the unidentified four explosion like sounds suspend my late night writing; the plop of fish back in the lotus pond below meeting the hooves on the pavement ahead; the wind encountering the windchimes as the nangka, jackfruit crashes to the motorbike ensemble; Pigeon collecting the weave from the basket for the dubious nest balanced on the turtledoves cage roof; the lightning lit sky illuminating the dance of the microbats over the batik clearing; and as the gecko barks loud from the eaves, my sleep takes over readying me for the nongkrong of tomorrow.”

​Each weekend I head out to experience more in Jogja and beyond.  The street art is incredible.  Do check out the work of the local, international artist Anagard: https://www.picuki.com/profile/anagard_stcl
 
Above is an image taken in the historic Taman Sari area of central Jogja, where I spied this 2018 ripper by fellow Australian Westhepants, Sesuatu yang bisa mengontrol which translates to ‘some things you can control’.  
 
And I’ve been hanging out in nongkrong style with students from here and home – such good times – thanks all.  It’s my new favourite word and doing.  Like the Angkringan I wrote about earlier, it’s part of the make-up of this place, and is all about socially being, taking time and connecting. 
 
A must read is Sonja Dahl’s Nongkrong and Non-Productive Time in Yogyakarta’s Contemporary Arts http://parsejournal.com/article/nongkrong-and-non-productive-time-in-yogyakartas-contemporary-arts/

The artists and thinkers coming here to Babaran Segaragunung Culture House (BSG) are diverse.  It’s a hive of activity with the weekly cultural study groups, the English language group, the interns, the artist who just turns up and the artists coming daily to make batik.  Such a privilege to get to know a little of so many of the artists here as part of my internship project and see some of their incredible work. With Desmond W. S. Anabrang, it’s a treat to work together on some studio photography of textiles; and how to get a good shot in daylight too. I’m also on the computer colour matching images to their textiles. You can see some of the textiles created for Baragung, the support system for BSG here: https://baragung.com/collections
 
I continue with my daily drawings.  And I am beginning to see how I am being influenced by this place, its people and stories.  My charcoal sketches metamorphose from their plein air stance to incorporating shadow play. Through experiencing the wayang kulit, shadow puppet show at the Sonobudoyo Museum; in thinking about the Javanese philosophies of connectedness of nature and culture; and from my zoo journey checking out the kancil, the Javanese mouse deer, kancil like shadows are appearing in the shadow plays of my sketches of the charismatic furniture of this place.  My first little shadow performance from a stool drawn here is captured in the image above.
 
Rambutan is being consumed in excess too.  It’s my favourite fruit of the moment, but more than that, their dried skins will be used to make a natural dye for the batik textiles here. I can’t wait to use the dye too, as a fluid ground for my sketches to come.

Unusually for this time of the year the rainy season is holding off – seemingly strange and noted by all.  And unusually for an ACICIS program, my internship has become a residency as well. 
 
Not just a work placement, I have been warmly welcomed and fully immersed in culture and life residing at Babaran Segaragunung Culture House (BSG) here in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.  At BSG, I am falling for the resident baby. Ibi, just a few months old sets the scene and the rhythm with her presence. And, I start a daily drawing practice; writing daily notes; documenting this time, place and people in photographs; and a reflective journal that will be submitted each week as part of this ACICIS program.  I begin my day hanging out continuing to learn some Bahasa Indonesian and swapping some English with the local student interns here. 
 
Artists Nia Fliam and Agus Ismoyo of BSG dedicate sessions with me focusing on the creative process through batiks, their stories and histories, and of their motifs with their embedded meanings and related philosophies.  Told through looking at the ancient semen batik motif, I hear about the concept of Tribawana, of the three worlds and begin to sense some of Nia’s and Isomoyo’s ways of seeing, thinking, feeling and being. I feel incredibly privileged to be in this place of cross cultural dialogue with Nia’s and Ismoyo’s open generosity. You can see and read a little their extraordinary cross cultural collaborations here: https://www.brahmatirtasari.org/exhibitions.html
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In Yogyakarta, Indonesia I have been walking the streets and sitting on the mat with fellow Australian Consortium for ‘In-Country’ Indonesian Studies (ACICIS) student Meg checking out Angkringan.  We will present upon these for a project of ours in this Creative Arts and Design Professional Practicum (CADPP) program  https://www.acicis.edu.au/programs/practicum/ through Sanata Dharma University that we are undertaking.  Angkringan, part of the cultural fabric of Jogja, cater moveable feasts of local specialties and oft help connect any and all with their egalitarian seating set ups.  But like the mix in so much of life, there’s a diversity of scenes and stories too from the isolated vendor in the quiet street to the bustling lights where the third generation angkringan vendor tells a little of her story of an inherited angkringan life from her mother and her grandmother, before her.
 
It’s been an intensive couple of weeks.  The days are split learning Bahasa Indonesian through the terrific Sanata Dharma’s Language Centre at Universitas Sanata Dharma mostly in the mornings followed by experiencing some of Jogja’s art scene through seminars and fieldtrips, aptly organised by ACICIS staff Dr Elly Kent and Oci, Mutiara Cininta (thank you / terima kasih!).  To give you a little taste here’s a link to just one treasure visited – the Indonesian Visual Arts Archive http://ivaa-online.org which is such an amazing online and physical resource, documenting arts activity and sharing knowledge through art in Indonesia’s post-Reformation era.
 
From the start, ACICIS paired each participant student with another (so much laughing with you Kelly) and an Indonesian Student Liaison Officer (where gold has been hit with Dhea by our sides - makasih). This has all helped the ache of saying goodbye to my family as they voyage home after our stint together here.  

I'm looking forward to seeing all my people and the creatures back home but I wish too that I had longer in this Sherman Studio at Bundanon.

I’ve packed up my work on the three projects commenced here: whilst settling in - painting interiors of Bundanon with all their creature things; the daily rhythm of my charcoal impressions of the wombats of Bundanon and; my still life paintings, each with a mix of objects from here and from home. I’ve been pairing the likes of squared wombat poo with measuring ducks; a wombat skull from the paddock with one of my kids toys and an old kitchen scale; and a red kitchen mincer with an old man banksia cone left round the side of the studio from an artist before me - its discovery felt somewhat like a bargain find from an op-shop. Its previsous life a mystery to imagine.

My background in conservation and land management is with me as I create these works, I’m thinking about some of the science: of measuring and weighing, figuring out what’s happening and how to live with this land.  I’m enjoying the play of objects and their linkages to science, the domestic and our natural world. And leaving the wombat skull here, where the wombat lived and died, I imagine that Doug too might snippet these remains into one of his works from this place.

Each day Writer Karen Viggers generously checks in to see my progress - another strip of wombat rhythms from the afternoon to the walls. She shares some of her process too, and her immersion in science as well. Being a vet is in her bright mix of tricks. This Bundanon residency is her second, this time she’s working on her fifth novel. And it’s not only fiction and animals for her, she’s up for an essay too.  Check out her Mountain Ashed in the Griffith Review …
https://griffithreview.com/articles/mountain-ashed/
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Along with the mum and bub wombat from the burrow under the Sherman and the plethora of wombats of the paddocks  (with over 30 spied in one standing), I will treasure the people from this journey. Thanks to the volunteers and staff, in particular Julie and Jen. and all behind the scenes at Bundanon Trust.  Thanks to Authur Boyd and his family and the First Nations peoples on this Wodi Wodi land. And cheers to the other Artists in Residence of my time here. To Karen, Doug, LinRan, Tim, Maggie, Ashley and Wart, it has been so rich hanging out. I look forward to seeing and listening and reading what comes next from you all.

We found ourselves out with the rising of the full moon over the Bundanon landscape, Doug Helsop was plein air thinking … and drawing too, I was in my rhythm of appreciating a wombat, this time following the moon.  Doug’s fully responding to and questioning this place on Wodi Wodi land, with its layered histories and linkages to the work of Arthur Boyd and Sidney Nolan too. He's sharing some honest and critical thought. You can check out some of Doug’s work through this link …
http://dougheslop.com/
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With some of the artists here, I have also headed to Arthur Boyd’s studio and into the Homestead, an incredible gift. Brushes still out you get a sense of its use just yesterday. Although I suspect it would have been a tad messier. To respond to Arthur Boyd’s vision and grow its legacy, Bundanon Trust have plans to build a new gallery and collection store, along with expanding the education facilities at Riversdale, the adjoining property.  We were treated to the Architects event, a conversation between the Architect, Kerstin Thompson and Carolyn Baum. I was won over by the plans and their connection to landscape, flood and fire and the existing Murutt Art Centre on site – a complimentary difference.

We too were treated to an immersion into the Bundanon Trust Collection by Collections Manager Jennifer Thompson. Gold, were her wealth of stories of and tangents from the artists and their works ... from Joy Hester to Arthur Boyd’s collaboration with Indra Deigan on the West Java legend of Sangkuriang. Sangkuiang clutched my interested, not only because of Jennifer’s retelling of Indra Deigan take and the Arthur Boyd’s depictions of its gripping narrative but also for my imaginations of there. I have just accepted a Professional Practicum in Indonesia for 2020 – more on that later. And generously Jennifer brought out some other Artists in Residence works who have responded to wombats in this place.  The poem by Chris Wallace-Crabbe of the Aesthetic Wombat, on the typed paper from when he was here in residence in 2002 was a decent find, just one of the archival treasures of this store.

Pictured here, we are in the Collection spying: Sidney Nolan, Head, 1983, spray paint on canvas. Bundanon Trust Collection.

On impulse I grabbed a few treasures from home on my way out to here in Bundanon.  Included were my broken red boots that travelled back with me from my French residency. The idea of painting my red boots back into a new work was cemented when the wind stood still and musician and producer Tim Oxley poignantly sung one night for us his lyrics to his song Boots for my Baby.  He had us in stitches too with his goldilocks antics in the musician’s cottage. Launch into some creations from this gem of an Oxley here …
https://rogerlovesbetty.com/tim-oxley

There’s been lots of ducking in to each others studios to check out the progress here at Bundaon.  This pic was taken in the Gonski Studio where we were checking out Wart's wall of eyes to be and her Ibis and Flamingos well on the way, an endearing flock, they are. 
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And I've loved that LinRan has joined my consortium with the wombat’s and painted some of her own on some of the watercolour squares I shared.  She has been working here on some exquisite Chinese paper and fans with some surreal imaginations and a kangaroo mention too.  Instillation, performance, photography, painting, poetry - she does it all.  Check out her website here …
http://www.linran.net/
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The first night of my wombat followings, my fellow Artist in Residence, Wart came through with the goods, she was on the lookout as I was too for the rising of the wombats out of the burrows all around. 

I’ve started some quick gestural drawings in charcoal on series of watercolour squares of these characters. My first muse, spied from my window, was drawn in the cosy comfort of the studio. And then moving too far away, I braved the roaring winds and sat a distance away in the open paddock with my charcoal and paper. I’m sure, I’m not the first of my kind that this being has had to put up with - what are all these people’s intentions?
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Every evening since, I have headed out with the wombats and followed one or another, or a mum and bub, or simply sat on the veranda as I sketch their nibbling and scratching.  Sometimes they are still enough that they almost become a ‘still life’. Especially when they sense something - they embody statue mode, nose raised and body poised. But mostly they’re constantly moving a little as they munch and scratch.  I hear they have a treatment program here for the mange … they share with foxes, whose wafts haze the walk here to Haunted Point.

I’ve also spent time just hanging out with the wombats during the day, sometimes in the paddocks as they munch away with a superb view to pulpit rock, the landmark repeated through so many of Arthur Boyd’s paintings. But even if you were not communing with the wombats here, you would not be able to miss their presence, or absence even, for they leave their mark - their squared poos … strategically placed on the fallen branches over the path, on the low plinth of the bronze sculpture, Genesis by Lenore Boyd in the homestead garden, on the time ravaged wombat skull in the paddock and on the welcome doormat to the writer’s studio.  Where there’s an audience, there’s a way.

Inside that writer’s studio, is Maggie Haertsch. She cooked a most delicious roast and shared some of her everyday at the moment. Aptly, with her work, she’s writing on her phone in her bed and her morsel shared has left me on the edge of my seat. A Bundanon regular, her last time here, she produced work with Centenarian Eileen Kramer, the writer, dancer, painter, costume designer and choreographer.  Through Maggies eyes, here is day 5 of Eileen at Bundanon …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJug8Zwkam4
 
Thanks Maggie.

To settle in I started a few small paintings situated in the interior of the studio, getting familiar with this place and its things, moving them around, watching the soft and startling light, thinking of the others who have shared this place and bringing some of me in too.
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I found some old man banksia cones collected no doubt from somewhere near here for someone others project of this place.  They were left around the side of the studio, laid with the time ravaged droppings by the resident wombats. I’m surprised a wombat hadn’t already left one of their squared treasures on top. Any way too good to pass by I bought them back into the studio – they may just weave their way into my work too.

And it’s the people too that settle one right in.  With a message out for a get together on Wart and my balcony, what followed was studio visits. The first to Ashley Frosts. Such a treasure to see how others work and respond to a place.  I loved how he was capturing some of the light of this place and we aligned a time for a combined portrait session later.  You can see a little of his project here ...
https://bundanon.com.au/residents/ashley-frost/

But our portrait session was not to be for my ducking off to my open studios at UNSW Honours became an extended affair.  The fuel pump decided to go in an underground car park – not a recommended thing to do.  Extraction, I have learnt is what roadside assistance call this complicated scenario.  But luckily for me a saviour was nearby.  And so, as car time panned out, I lapped up the treat to draw Louisa Chircop whist she worked in her studio on her next exhibition. She too has had a residency here at Bundanon. Head here see some of her masterful works of painterly surreal imaginations with their layered collisions of representation and disruptors ...
https://www.louisachircop.com/home-1

Thanks Louisa!

​I have arrived for my Bundanon Artist in Residence stint.  Serendipity weaved its way on the waves on 702 as I drove across the land, with a segment about just one of the creatives in the artistic dynasty of the Boyds - Arthur Boyd’s cousin, Architect Robin Boyd.  He brought architecture to the fore mid last century with his innovative small house designs and the book The Australian Ugliness, criticised at time for being unpatriotic.  Now, its legacy is much regarded.

And also, in the folded time of that drive was an interview of an artist and scientist collaborating. It offered me a moment of reflection upon the art science project that I am currently involved in, Art of Threatened Species (AoTS) and my connections with my science specialists Deborah Ashworth and Michaela Jones.  I went out monitoring brush-tailed rock-wallabies only last week with them again.  Incredible, they have both worked with this population with a few others for the last twenty years.  The population of these creatures at Jenolan has grown from less than 10 to around 100 during this care of theirs.  On that trip, I spied a quoll too and named one of the new brush-tailed rock-wallaby’s, a T name, as is the convention, so Tegan with Tiko and Trish now bound out there. And just this morning on the drive here, I pulled over the side of the road to hook in for the latest AoTS meeting with some of the other players.  It is a collaboration between (the then) Office of Environment and Heritage and Orana Arts.  In November there will be an exhibition stemming from project opening at Western Plains Cultural Centre. You can check out some of the project here ....
https://www.oranaarts.com/art-of-threatened-species/

It links to my project here at Bundanon, along with my project at Honours at UNSW. Really all my work links in some way or another to each other.  My specific plan here is to be open to influence – to be influenced by my time in Bundanon where I’ll continue to paint and draw, and start a new body of work, a snap shot from this place and time drawing upon my work to date and feeding into my work of tomorrow.
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Of here, I arrived about the same time as Wart. We are under the same roof and I feel a descent level of comfort and warmth through the laughs and shared stories already. You can check out a little of what she’s up to with the Ibis here …
https://bundanon.com.au/residents/wart/

Of first impressions, there is a book on the coffee table Wombats of Bundanon Twenty Australian Poets (eds. C Kelen, S Zijiang) and a mother and baby wombat have just wandered out from the burrow under our building, checking us out nonchalantly as the newbies in this place.  In my first happy snap here of this place you can see a mum and bub - the wombats in residence. Nim, my four legged friend left behind at home would be beside herself.  And of home I’ve also left lots of meals cooked with love back in the fridge and freezer for my loves left there. I miss them all already.

This Bundanon Trust Artist in Residence program is at Bundanon in the Shoalhaven, on Wodi Wodi land, a generous gift from artist Arthur Boyd and his family. I am with him when he said “you can’t own a landscape”. There are four visual artist studios, a writers cottage, a musician cottage and a dance studio. If you ever want to check out this place it’s open to the public every Sunday …
https://bundanon.com.au/whats-on/bundanon-open-days/

Thanks for having me Bundanon.

I’m in the home run straight, in the lead up to my solo exhibition, BALANCE at the CSIRO Discovery Centre Gallery in Canberra, opening next Wednesday 18 July at 5:30 pm.  Works that have been contemplated for a while have been revisited and new works are hot off easel.  I have been working in the house where the fire cranks and Nim’s comfy on the chair, for my studio is a tad breezy in its rustic ways.

This exhibition, only my third solo affair, is a little different to my last two.  This one has a mix of works from a few series over the last couple of years.  There’ll be works from my days studying at the Australian National University where I spent time at the CSIRO Australian National Wildlife Collection, some from my time in France at the artist residency at Centre d’Art Marnay Art Centre CAMAC and others from my continuance of works here at home and in my studio.  But they all link together through my contemplation of environmental loss and hope.  There’s a clear focus on still life experiments in these works where I play with objects, their reflections and shadows.
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If it’s up your alley, do come.

​In a dalliance with Movers and Shapers at the #yellowboxartistresidency in the Sofala region, I found some of my kind (not always an easy thing in this often remote-inducing vocation) and spent a couple of days painting out in the open with a bunch of other suspects appreciating, questioning and investing in the landscape of the Central West. 

Understandably, I was not the only one to inspect the dumped black car in the tussock and bush (on the way in my painting above).  What was its story and what will come of it?  Maybe it will be painted in years to come as well, when it’s just a mere skeleton, when I am long gone, just like the rusted and bullet ridden skeleton of a dump I’ve been eyeing off for another painting just a hop and a skip away from my studio in Napoleon Reef.  I imagine that some of the series of kids that once played in this other dumped beauty would be grandmothers now. And speaking of painting in Napoleon Reef, the last two days have seen me sitting outside of my studio, painting some more of the white gums that fill me to the brim.  And I’ve been painting plein air with a table now, after ditching the easel.  A welcome tip garnered from avidly listening to Maria Stoljar’s Talking with Painters.  A genius and gem of an interviewer, through her authentic enthusiasm and genuine interest for what each of her interviewee artists are up to, she somehow has me right there too, as each artist shares generously, a total participant. But back to my plein air affairs, in between the jaunt to Sofala and the stepping outside in Napoleon Reef, I gave an Artist Talk on my French residency experience, to the brave who came out in the gusty chill to the monthly plien air event, Art in the Park, Bathurst.  

So, it has been five days of plein airing it up, but of course, other stuff has peppered these days like they do every week.  There’s been the sharing with my cousin Kiata Mason, to talk shop and create side by side in the open air and in my studio too.  I’ve packaged up and sent off my Calleen Art Award finalist work. I’ve viewed the pics of my portrait of my man in the line-up along the wall right now of the SBS Portrait Prize in Melbourne (it’s not easy to get everywhere) and I received the good news that other work of mine will be a finalist in the Fleurieu Biennale of South Australia.  Thrilled I am by the lot of it. I re-read the latest contract to be signed about the residency project I am jumping into with a bunch of scientists and artists – the Launch being next week, which all means the details of my trip to the Capital next week are being refined. And with this trip I’ve set up a meeting to view an exhibition space there too and also a Gallery Director’s visit to my studio later here as well, with the planning of two shows in the pipeline. And relief is in my pipeline too, for I’ve finalised that I’m delivering my longest commission, a figurative work in just a couple of days now.   It’s good to chalk another line through the list on the studio blackboard.

I applied for a residency whilst on my last residency in Camac, Marnay-sur-Seine, France.  It was one of only a couple of major planning things that drew me away at the time focusing on what was in front of me in my studio. And I’m glad I did as I have been notified of my acceptance – no doubt I’ll let you know more on that one later.  I hope that amongst some meaningful art that comes from this new residency project, some connection grows with the group selected too. One thing that I took from the residency in France was not only the learning that comes by being surrounded by a group of artists but the bonding too.  The six portraits shown here, were created during some intense days at the end of the residency, of those who were left and who hung out together in the studios at the top of the 16th century monastery.  These paintings were created ala prima in quick sittings.  I didn’t know but I had been priming myself to do them, as they came on the back of over 40 pencil drawings I had also created, on the old French literary cards from this place, of the artists and locals in this place.  Looking at them now remind me that constantly drawing as well as placing limits on your work can be a good thing – these portraits were painted in just hours in one sitting each, because that was all there was. And in fact a half of them didn’t exactly sit.  For I painted them as they worked too.

And of bonding, one of the artists in residence with me at this place was Katherine Grace Bond.  Her studio was next to my living quarters and her warm heart made me calm from the beginning in this new place.  She is a writer, and was the only one amongst the plethora of visual artists at the residency.  One of her gifts to us was her generous writing and reading of this piece to all of us at our open studios event …

http://katherinegracebond.com/fifty-days-france-1-string-theory/

Thankyou Katherine and thank you too to Carlos, Sandra, Daehyun, Daniela, Ana, Christian, Jakub, Charlet, Augstine, Mathilde, Laétitia, Karine and Melanie. 
​

​I’ve had to pack my oil paints away because anything I do now even with beloved drying medium, will not have a chance to cure before I head back to Australia, so charcoal is my friend again.  It is hard to say goodbye to this place and its people who have been so welcoming and given morsels here and wads there.  Not long ago I said goodbye to the artists I shared the Camac residency at Marnay-sur-Seine.  The Mexicans from there, you must say hello to – check out the work of Ana B Hursh http://estudiomoscu.blogspot.fr/2017/03/ana-b-hursh.html and Christian Santana Prinz http://christiansantanaprinz.blogspot.fr/.  They work together through taking turns and layering their gorgeous pigments of old memories and new stories. And now it’s time for me to say thank you and farewell to my artist friends here at AMIS des Arts Albi, in the south of France. And maybe all these farewells are too much for it seems too that I am having pangs of conscience saying goodbye to even my broken shoes.  A little too much collected and so little space to take back on the plane.  We are strange creatures, us humans – or maybe it is just me.  I have tried to deal with some of this imminent departure through my painting, and so I share with you a cropped section of one of my last paintings here.  It’s called ‘Homage to red shoes’ So, here’s to new adventures with new shoes … or maybe I’ll renege and take the broken old ones back with me?

​This project was assisted by a grant from Create NSW, an agency of the New South Wales Government and supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian State and Territory Governments. The program is administered by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA). This project was assisted by a subvention through the CAMAC – Ténot Fondation.

My studio at this residency in Camac, Marnay-sur-Seine has been packed up and I have gone (nearly).  I hear there’s two writers, a dancer and a visual artists who have moved in.  I think they too will be stamped.  I certainly have been. 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. 
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And very much in the present is the work of Sandra Lapage and Carlos Pileggi  They held us all close with warmth and laughter and such delicious food cooked.  Check out their work and their collaborations too.  Last year when last here they shared the studio I was in they created a labyrinth of beauty and awe with delicacy and punch too.  You can spy just a little of their work here … http://eclusecamac.tumblr.com/      http://cargocollective.com/pulga      http://cargocollective.com/sandralapage    

​This project was assisted by a grant from Create NSW, an agency of the New South Wales Government and supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian State and Territory Governments. The program is administered by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA). This project was assisted by a subvention through the CAMAC – Ténot Fondation.

The end is near for this residency and oil painting portraiture has taken over, with a little still life branch touch up and a moment with the crow head piece owned by Mathilde, our Marnay-sur-Seine neighbour.  Materialised from those in front of me are portraits now on my easel and hanging on the line.  Thank you Charlet, Carlos, Sandra, Augustine, Mathilde and Jakub for letting me in a little into your worlds.  It was a great pleasure for me to have you sit (and stand!) – thanks for those amazing moments. And with these portraits it seems like I have just blinked my eyes and time has evaporated. So time to leave you with another wonder, one of the artists that I have shared this time with. Do have a look at the work of Charlet Gehrmann here https://www.volksstimme.de/lokal/gardelegen/20150909/ausstellung-kunst-gehoert-in-ein-krankenhaus. She is from Germany and her drawings are a delicate discovery in the beauty of form and line, where myths, and people, plants and animals and the landscape all morph together into mystery.  

​This project was assisted by a grant from Create NSW, an agency of the New South Wales Government and supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian State and Territory Governments. The program is administered by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA). This project was assisted by a subvention through the CAMAC – Ténot Fondation.

​It’s well past half way and we are starting to think about our open studios around the corner. Armelle, my Parisian friend is coming to stay to celebrate this opening with us and spend some time together, good good.  And the richness with the mix of artist’s here at the residency has continued. A side project of portraiture has started.  My vaulted ceiling studio on the top floor, three stories up in the old 16 Century Abbey here at Camac has a side small round space in the tower which was calling out for something more.  More than the dead pigeon on the window sill, so, I set aside my still life oil painting practice for moments here and there and with the old literary cards from the shared space below, I have been caught in time with these people creating some small portraits of them and me too.  Looking at them now there must be over 40 quick studies.  In a few, I think, where did that line come from? And I remind myself when in the process to just go with it, whatever comes – it is just a conversation.  From this dalliance also came a shared portraiture party one night.  After dinner when I started with a portrait of Augustine from Pakistan, who’s staying in the other residency up the road – (and as an aside, has work full of courage and power http://www.asianchristianart.org/feature_arfan_words.htm), only seconds passed when more caught the bug and Augustine was now sitting for three, and then the literary cards we passed up and down the table with the frenzy of each drawing each other.  Some laughs were had and in the mix, we saw our youth and age too.

And more sharing of work with presentations each night has continued.  To give you a little taste of another gem here, head to http://www.moonassi.com/ and you will meet some of Daehyun Kim’s poignant beings.  He’s from South Korea, treasured by the New York Times and works magic and awe with feelings. And of the people here, I have also been looking at some of the work of artists who have come before me to this place.  Both those who have come for an artist residency and those who were here before.  The jazz artists who once dwarfed these nooks and crannies, come to my ears, for in this place’s history it was once a humming radio studio too.  With the main house host to amazing musicians of the 60’s with French notables such as Duke Ellington and Johnny Hallyday.  
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Our open studio’s are on Friday 24 November from 6:30 to 8:30 at Camac, Marnay-sur-Seine.  Do come.…

​This project was assisted by a grant from Create NSW, an agency of the New South Wales Government and supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian State and Territory Governments. The program is administered by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA). This project was assisted by a subvention through the CAMAC – Ténot Fondation.

A week of paintings has materialised.  This week has also seen me held by the Lady and the Unicorn tapestries at the Musee du Moyen Age (a 15th Century marvel curated in fine form) and back at Deyrolles in Paris – and as a result a squirrel this time is now inhabiting my studio, along with the pigeon hanging on in death and the time ravaged mistletoe resembling petrified antlers collected from my bike ride up the road.  Some old luggage has been collected too - I could not help myself – discovered in the depths of the shared space.  I wonder how long it has been here and who travelled with it. I’m building up to paint these beauties. 
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With helmets absent and with what can only be described as an air raid siren shouting out from the depths of its lungs, life is as I am finding it.  Just routine in these parts.  Everyone knows the once a month midday Wednesday test siren – I’m not sure I would get used to it. And many discussions of this and more were had with locals at the party we artists were so generously and warmly invited to.  So wonderful to meet these beautiful people from these parts and hear their stories of generations here and of protest from 1978 of the forthcoming nuclear plant – they clearly lost, but they describe a more recent win regarding an ethanol industry proposed development. And, interesting to meet the new comers too, who see the benefits of this place, an artist enclave with quietness and affordable living.  And then the hourly and half hourly bells continue to ring with their routine and give me a consciousness of sharing time somehow with those who have been here before me. 

Like so many little towns across France there is an amazing recorded history here of over 1000 years of much endurance. Of restoration and destruction, there’s the remnants of the gallows corner ‘Place due Poneau’ from the 9th Century, the destruction of half the church in the 16th Century during the religious wars and the subsequent re-building with a bell tower, of the confiscation of ritual objects and the sending of the bells to the foundry with the onset of the French Revolution in 1793, of Austrian soldiers setting fire to the houses of Marnay-sur-Seine in 1814 and of the destruction of the bridge twice in WWII.   I came across these morsels in the church across the road so generously opened by the Town Maire’s Office, for otherwise the church is now locked up.  And in the church, I spy some remnants of frescos on the archways that are so unusual to my eye, they remind me of Leunig’s Mr Curly. I am captivated.  And too I am captivated by the work happening right now with this bunch of artists at this residency.

Each night we come together and share a truly amazing three course dinner (thank you Sandra and Carlos!) and then we become engrossed in the work of one of us with a presentation and studio visit.  To share with you a little of just one of my fellow residents, from the studio next door (pictured above), head here to see some of the work of jakub tomáš https://www.works.io/jakub-tomas . He is from the Czech Republic and is working in a way that peaks my interest.  In my last research project at ANU I was looking at the work of Masaya Chiba, Marian Drew and Amanda Marburg.  They all blur the boundaries between sculpture, instillation and painting utilsing 3 D sculptural elements that they have created with modelling, collage and or sculpture to inform their 2 D work.  And I too have sculpted and cast and built models to install and paint from.  I like that in Jakubs work that in playing with reality he paradoxically leaves me with a feeling of unreality.

This project was assisted by a grant from Create NSW, an agency of the New South Wales Government and supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian State and Territory Governments. The program is administered by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA). This project was assisted by a subvention through the CAMAC – Ténot Fondation.

The beginning of a new body of work is unfolding - my Camac residency at Marnay-sur-Seine, France has commenced.  My brain is abuzz and I have some time for my focus.  This is good.  I have wandered this beautiful small village rich in history – only around 250 people live here – not dissimilar to home – with no school, no pub and no shop – but here there is a church dating from the 12 Century and a cemetery too.   I have pondered and gathered some thoughts by the Seine on the river’s edge and at my window too, watching the mistletoe and the bird life abound.  And definitely too, I have contemplated the scene around the corner stretching to a neighbouring town of the white plume billowing forth from the nuclear power plant.  It is a strange, saturating and ominous feeling to be so close.  And I am reminded that the French are never too far from one with the apparent 58 scattered across their lands. Maybe I will gain some understanding of how the people who live nearby process it?  More than my initial reaction of perusing evacuation procedures. No doubt this experience will be etched into my being and like the river and surrounding environment, the people, and the history, it will instigate some more research and become part of the patchwork that influences my work.
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Connection is happening with the group of artists I will spend time with this month of November – helped by the wine of course over dinner each night.  Some treats of studio visits with the other artists have already started, and I am excited to be working just a studio away from this bunch – there’s some very fascinating work happening here and some hearty characters too.  The studios are terrific, spread across the walled compound.  Mine is large, with a vaulted roof, on the top floor of the 16 Century Abbey. This month, camac has a mixed bunch of visual artists and a writer too from eight countries spread across five continents around the world.  There is a couple from Mexico, Ana and Christian, and another couple from Brazil, Sandra and Carlos on a return visit here, two Germans not together, Charlotte and Daniella who is also returning to camac to work with a school’s project, Jakub from the Czech Republic and Daehyun from South Korea, both already here from last month, Katherine the writer from the United States, and Augustine from Pakistan, also a returning artist who is based up the road in the Botanic Gardens. 

And of my work I am painting with oils on un-stretched linen in the day and at night in the still life genre, right now of some birds, some branches and some shadows too.  My feathered accompanies are a Eurasian Magpie Pica pica or ‘Pie’ as I was introduced to her, who travelled with me on the train, rented from Deyrolles Taxidermy establishment in Paris, (a cabinet of curiosities time travelling experience in itself) and the pigeon found under the bridge – freshly dead (and definitely in the present), possibly left by the resident peregrine falcon or one of the many cats of these parts.  It’s good to have started.

This project was assisted by a grant from Create NSW, an agency of the New South Wales Government and supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian State and Territory Governments. The program is administered by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA). This project was assisted by a subvention through the CAMAC – Ténot Fondation.

I’m in the process of packing up all my gear, to head from this temporary life of mine with my family in Lamillarie and studio at les AMIS des Arts d’Albi, here in the south of France to my new studio and abode at an artist residency in Marny-sur-Siene at Camac about an hour out of Paris for the month of November.  http://www.camac.org/residences-dartistes/candidatures/

​Here, I am leaving some wet oil painting’s drying in the studio pegged on my makeshift line. I have been working on un-stretched linen with the thought that it would be much easier to travel without stretcher bars.  Of course, the reality of working in this different way has, as always, been a big learning experience. If I can share anything it is prevention - try not to crease ones gessoed linen in the first place. And so too I think, how will I manage the leaving of Camac with wet paintings back to here?  The logistics of everything when making away from home is not a small thing.  But it’s not such a huge thing either.  For mostly I am thinking not of logistics but of the work I will do at this residency and of emotions.  What new influences will come my way in this new place, will I be able to express what I want and what value will it all have – will it contribute anything?  And also, how will I go without my family and will they all be ok for this month?  It’s a big thing to do. 

This project was assisted by a grant from Create NSW, an agency of the New South Wales Government and supported by the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, an initiative of the Australian State and Territory Governments. The program is administered by the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA). This project was assisted by a subvention through the CAMAC – Ténot Fondation.
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It was both Patrimony Day and the flight of the peregrine falcon above Albi that hooked my family into the streets, in the museums and looking high on Saint Cecile Cathedral.  This world heritage listed old city we have landing in opens its arms to all on this day with free entry everywhere.  From the cobblestone streets, to Musee Toulouse Latrec, to linkages of France and Australia through the journeys of Albi’s son, La Perouse, there is much to experience here.  And a favourite is the Centre d’Art le LAIT – which just happens to be one of the most amazing contemporary art spaces I have experienced  … so I share with you one of my snaps of my littlest breathing in this wonder.  But with the wow, there was also the sigh, for the current exhibition in the space http://www.centredartlelait.com/?lang=en#expos – a beauty with over fifty photographers and video artist works featured – (if my French ear can be trusted) is one its last.   The powers to be have decided to sell the building off to the hotel above.   Life is always such a mix of disappointment and … delight. 

​But there was also delight on this day for some telescopes were set up on the Cathedral to view the perched peregrine falcon.  The Tarn Ligue pour le Protection des Oiseaux set these up to share with the people from far and wide the resident falcon.  This group and the community have worked together for over fifteen years to protect the falcons in this urban setting, setting up nesting boxes and monitoring the falcons and their fledglings expanding their population across the tarn https://translate.google.fr/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://tarn.lpo.fr/&prev=search It’s a Uno’s Garden real life story in action. http://graemebase.com/book/unos-garden/

And since I have been thinking about these birds and our story with them – but being so far away and high in the sky,  they are somewhat tricky to paint.  Instead, I have settled in to paint in the traditional and authentic (and as the French say) ‘nature morte’ genre – which translates to ‘still life’.  Not a falcon, and not alive, but once feathered, the carcass I set up in the studio recently, was from a local boucherie / volaillers – the way they come here - French style, mostly plucked and almost whole, with head and more – a pintade, – just dead, and ready (in my case for painting and later) for some roasting, to feed my expanded family of nine (except of course the lovely vegetarian).  Kind of like killing two birds with one stone.  But in reality, it was just the death of one bird - thank you pintade.