Paint and Plush: The Bammy Residency October 2015

Monday, November 16, 2015

The Bammy Residency October 2015

This October Jacqueline Larcombe, Prince and myself were awarded the Bammy artist Residency by the Sydney based gallery Marrickville Garage. The residency was a month long stay in an old cottage in a remote part of the bush on the Hawkesbury river NSW. The property was situated on Mangrove Creek and featured a private jetty onto the water with impressive views of the landscape that was a comfortable distance from civilisation.

I had a positive experience during the Bammy residency, as it was both a personally therapeutic and an artistically productive time. It gave me a much needed break from my urban life and it’s professional and social pressures, whilst providing me with uninterrupted time and space to work on my art practice. I found the isolation and natural beauty of the landscape cleansing and gained a renewed sense of confidence and positivity.

I responded to the landscape whilst visiting Mangrove Creek, making drawings and watercolours outdoors, before working on collages and larger paintings in the studio. I find the Australian bush a captivatingly complex subject from which to work, the beauty of the residency was that I could revisit sites and be immersed in the space on a daily basis and as such form an intimate knowledge of the landscape over time. This relationship formed a valuable part of my residency that enriched my painting practice. The final works that I produced operate as interconnected psychological interiors and landscape paintings that chart the emotional terrain of my experiences within the natural environment of Mangrove Creek.