Tasmania Residency

My stay at the cottage went so quickly and the time since I left has already flown by. I think next time I do a residency I will try and make it for at least a month; you really need time to settle into a new environment and commence working. It was a bit sad leaving my key on the table and locking the door on Sunday night. Although I feel like I could have stayed for longer, it was a really good experience living in such a unique location and being free to live and work in the way I wanted. I referred to myself as an 'art fraud' at one point as I spent so much time swimming, eating rich Tasmanian dairy products, drinking beer on the verandah and wandering around the gorge, Launceston and surrounds. Maybe I thought I should be working for hours and hours each day hunched over a desk scribbling away. I did a fair bit of drawing but I feel like my main project has been collecting and recording my experience of being away. I think one of the main benefits of a residency is to live out of your normal surroundings and experience a new environment, entering into a different way of thinking and working. The little drawings and thoughts I recorded at the cottage wouldn't have happened if I had just been working at home; they are a direct result of my stay at Cataract Gorge. I haven't directly recorded the landscape around me in my drawings but have been more interested in the feelings and thoughts that passed through my mind when I was in that environment. It was good to have the chance to be by myself and reflect upon moments of the past and present. I've come away from my residency at the cottage with a fresh perspective on my work and some good starting points and tangents which I plan to follow.