2025 Week #1

Happy New Year to everyone. We hope everyone had a good end to 2024 however you choose to clebrate.

…. and so the year at Wattley Hill begins. Everything feels familiar and new and all at the same time. Let me bring you all up to speed.

After 35 years in Avalon Beach (the northern most tip of Sydney, we pulled up stakes and relocated our lives to the Mid North Coast of NSW. It was a good decision. Not an easy one to come to (on all sorts of personal fronts), but made and followed through on. It was big move, in a big truck, up a big freeway, to the top of a big green hill. Packing our home and studios to go was done in and around painting two solo shows at the same time. Two series of varied sizes in oil and wax on both board and canvas, 23 in all. Three weeks prior to the move, I packed up only what I would need immediatly when we would arrive at the new Studio of “Wattley Hill”. This would also give the works top layer of wax some opportunity to semi-dry so they could be transported in the tray of our smaller truck, on one of the multiple day trips we did with delicates, plants, garage items, all my art materials and of course anything that was still laying around our old property. You know the bits that you’ve looked at a thousand times but don’t see until you’re going.

I loved my Studio at Bangalley Headland, I had waited a long time to build it. Lets rephrase that, I had taken a long time to tell myself, I deserved it. But things happen as things need to. It was a tight fit at 3m x 6m not only because I painted big works and small works and medium works all at the same time. They were everywhere, on the easel, the table, the floor, on top of book stacks, paint racks. That and probably the hoarding of art materials, just in case, one day ……

Looking back at it, I can see the progression of practice relative to the spaces. First dedicated Studio, procrastinated, self talked and raised children. Second Studio was a table undercover on an open air verandah when I would draw with ink and gouache onto stretched W/C paper, one work at a time for weeks on end. Third Studio was the garage under the house which I shared with the Special One and his motorbikes. When we were in there together at times, he would say from behind my back - “You’re beautiful”. When I realised he was taking to the Laverda, it was time to go. This Studio housed me (again open air) while I painted backgrounds for Geddes and for the first time got paid to work. This kept me busy but away from a personal practice. The Fourth Studio we built, with Dutch Barn Doors at one end, a bank of louvres above my bench and a garden to look upon and watch the light travel across the lawn. Here I began the painting practice in ernest, disciplined and routined, with 7 solo exhibitions over 4 years, dotted with commissioned works and an awarded residency.

Now we have arrived here and a whole new chapter begins. Wattley Hill Studio measuring roughly 20m x 15m means room to spread out, different areas for different mediums and process, surrounded by paddocks and a rainforested land, 9 acres in total, with an abundance of light, fresh air and birdsong. I feel blessed beyond what I imagined it could be. Concrete floors, cross ventilating louvres on every side, a fireplace with a sitting area for visitors and a mezzanine level for the Special One. It also has a chandelier which I’m growing accustomed to and will probably stay until I can create one of our own. It brings a freedom to work on personal projects for our home amongst the practice work and all can be left out to be attended to in turn. It is abundant in space, not only to work but for the mind and the possibilities to explore. It is a very happy place and I will be forever grateful it’s ours.

Now that Christmas and New Year and most of the visitors have gone, it is time to prep for 2025/26. I have a solo show to prepare for The G Contemporary in Noosa and another for Rosby Gallery in Mudgee, where Paul Bacon (sculptor and now neighbour) and I will exhibit alongside each other again. This will be our third show together. I am blessed to have Paul to play with, a like mind who shares the understanding of needing welcomed aloneness to work, but that also a shared meal or coffee visit nourishes the partnership.

Thank you to all that support my practice, you allow me to continue to make work which in turn nurtures my nervous system and body and continues to give me the will to “do”. Thank you especially to The Special One who took the leap and trusted we would end up where we needed to be.