In the next week or two, I will go up the mountains for the day and do some drawing and some colour studies. I met my brother in law, sister and Mum today for a quick trip to do some important family stuff then we tentatively organised to go to the mountains. Hopefully, within two or three months, I can start turning the garage in the mountains into a studio space with some canvases and painting gear. It will be the first time I have had a dedicated space for art since I left art school over twenty years ago. I would probably only spend a few days a month up there until the property is fully habitable then possibly spend a couple of weekends a month when it is. I am hoping that some of the family can use the property for a weekend here and there.

To start with I might just stick to acrylic painting then branch into oils. I don’t think the garage will be that well ventilated but it should be fine for oils. I would love to work mainly on linen and will probably start off fairly small before scaling up. I am hoping I can find a good place where they may build high-quality stretchers, although I may just make some myself with the prebuilt style stretcher pieces that can be clicked together. I think ideally I want to make high-end level pieces so at least they are collectable. I am fairly confident I can make a series of works and get them onto the regional market. I will still be in Sydney though painting walls and drawing. I am not planning on making an amateur effort. At least I will have time away from the pieces back in Sydney so I can have fresh eyes on return.

I have expressed interest in being a part of a local art space in my local area as well, I haven’t heard anything back yet but I signed up last week so they are probably waiting until they get a few people on board. It would be good to split my efforts into drawing and documentation in Sydney and possibly landscape and still life in the mountains. I will see what works out although having a dedicated art space is going to be a good step in any case. I can make decent work in Sydney but not on a large scale in terms of size. I think working on things at home in Sydney and working larger in the mountains will be an exciting way to make work. Although Sydney will be largely on paper and there will be canvas work in the mountains, let’s see in the next few months and in the meantime I am looking forward to a day trip for those studies.