Belinda Smith and Dan Plummer: artists-in-residence August 2014

Plummer and Smith family drawing, Gunyah 2014

After a busy year juggling the demands of our growing design practice and our young family we were looking forward to our visit to Gunyah and a brief shift in focus. With no client or technical constraints this was a time to simply observe, to document in sketch and photograph and to involve our young children in the process. 

Plummer and Smith family drawings, Gunyah 2014

We arrived after 2 days of travel from Murwillumbah in northern New South Wales with great anticipation. 4 year old Martha and 2 year old Edith were keen to explore the place just as Dan and I were. Our days were filled with expeditions to the jetty for fishing and rock hopping along the shore, a bush walk, drawing and craft time in the afternoons and evenings, reading books and looking out for the wallabies and birds.

Plummer and Smith, Gunyah rain, 2014


The trees have such a strong presence at Gunyah. The bush setting, the natural landscape where wallabies and birds are welcome, the house of timber and the wood fuelled fire keeping us warm in the rainier days. The trees blew about in the wind, dripped with rain, blossomed with wattle and gave us shelter and shade.
Wonderful. 

Belinda Smith

Belinda Smith, Gunyah trees, 2014

We bought with us a book called ‘A manual on Drawing Trees and Foliage’ to add to the Gunyah library and a set of letter punches which I was unsure why I packed. As we started to settle into our wooded environment these seemingly disconnected things formed as an idea of a site specific artwork. With my letter punches in hand I headed out into the forest surrounding Gunyah and tapped out part of the books introduction onto the smooth trunk of a Eucalypt. 
“Imperceptibly trees wince at a coming blow and stretch themselves in the rising sun
Dan Plummer


Plummer and Smith, Gunyah fishing, 2014

Through the lens and a landscape architects eye - a series of frames that depict the texture and ambience of our stay at Gunyah.

Thank you for the opportunity.

Plummer and Smith, Gunyah wattle, 2014

You can see more of Belinda and Dan's work at www.plummerandsmith.com.au and read their Gunyah proposal at www.gunyah.blogspot.com.au/2014/07


Plummer and Smith, Gunyah lines, 2014

Jo Grant and Sandra Winkworth: upcoming artists-in-residence

Jo Grant, Bottles (site specific installation), 2012, tea towels and pva

Jo Grant and Sandra Winkworth are artists who often work together but since they live in different states, their collaborations usually take place via post. Sending an artwork back and forth, Jo and Sandra each add to it in turn, which eventually results in a final collaborative piece. They also email each other, sharing feedback and consultation on the solo aspects of their practices. Their residency at Gunyah will add a new dimension to their collaborations - this time creating work together in the same space.

Sandra Winkworth, Line-up (Pardolotes 1873 – 1891), 2012, 
mono print concertina on aquarelle paper

At the heart of both our practices is a desire to represent the significance of pristine places and sustainability of endangered species, through deliberate choice of materials, medium and imagery. Gunyah will allow us a special opportunity to be in the same place physically - as opposed to previous collaborations that have been long distance - an exciting proposition for us both. Our work incorporates nature and the reuse and recycling of materials and will be particularly focused on celebrating native birds. The bush land at Gunyah will be a direct resource for the work made during the stay.

Sandra Winkworth, A Story Beginning with the Letter B, 2012
dry point, etching, inkjet, acrylic, found art paper cut offs and found objects

Sandra Winkworth is an artist based in Sydney, she works across printmaking, painting, drawing and installation. Since graduating with a BVA Honours from Canberra School of Art, ANU in 1995 Sandra has exhibited extensively with solo, selected and invited group exhibitions in Australia and the 2013 Impact 8 Printmaking Conference in Dundee, Scotland. Sandra has been awarded a biannual Manly Library Artist Book Award, Port Fairy’s Biblio-Art Prize and the Greenway Art Prize, Sydney. Recently Sandra was an artist in residence at Portland in Victoria and Pop In Space Leichhardt, NSW. 
You can see more of Sandra's work at www.swinkworth.blogspot.com.au

Jo Grant, Next Morning, 2012, Found paper, books, thread

Jo Grant is an artist based in the Victorian coastal town of Port Fairy. She works in mixed media, fibre arts, and photography; and graduated from RMIT in 1993 with a Bachelor of Arts and went on to complete a Master of Visual Art in 2004 at Griffith University, Queensland. Last year Jo was part of the Craft Victoria - Craft Cubed festival with a site-specific installation, Out of the Drawer. Recently she presented her work Vessel at Branch3D in Sydney; published a book of her photographic work, All Prize Winners Paraded; and curated a project in her home town, Home Show: smalls involving nine artists across three states.
You can see more of Jo's work on her websitwww.jogrant.com.au 

Yvette Hamilton: artist-in-residence July 2014

Yvette Hamilton, Writing, reading and contemplating place, 2014

As an artist my work is centered around an exploration of place and being. Thinking, writing and making work about place in such a place as North Arm Cove gave unexpected and very interesting insights.

Yvette Hamilton, Outlook Drive, 2014

North Arm Cove was, in the past, going to be the site of ‘Port Stephens City’, a potential site for the Nation’s Capital. The land was subdivided up in 1918, with grand plans of major development. Look up North Arm Cove on Google Maps today and you’ll see a bird’s eye view of what looks to be a well-planned bustling town. Street names such as City Crescent, Outlook Drive and Harper Loop are not immaculately kept thoroughfares as they appear online, but rather bushy fire trails, where the bustling comes via the hordes of wallabies rather than people and traffic.

 Yvette Hamilton, The bustling intersection of Crest Road and Outlook Drive, 2014

The marks made upon the land are being slowly etched away, as evidenced in the blank street sign above. The effect is at once unsettling and peaceful, like a cross between a post apocalyptic landscape that nature has reclaimed, to a place at the verge of something.

Yvette Hamilton, Afternoon explorations, 2014
The residency at Gunyah is something of a rarity, with many residency opportunities as a parent to a young child, are either impossible or impractical. The opportunity to combine work with family was a very positive experience, and almost surprisingly productive. I made good use of the downstairs studio space to create a line between ‘holiday house’ and ‘work space’, and I think that the collective energies of the artists who had used the space before me helped to focus my attention. The days soon fell into a rhythm – up early to work, a pleasure when the view out your ‘work window’ is of bush and water, and then late afternoon walks to explore, and play at the water’s edge. The main interruptions of the day were the almost constant streams of wallabies (or wobblies as my son called them) hopping past the windows. What I imagine was always a truly special place to the families and friends that built it, Gunyah is now enriched by the creative people that inhabit it during the winter months. I feel blessed to have been one of them.
Yvette  Hamilton, July 2014
Yvette Hamilton, Gunyah studio, 2014

To see more of Yvette's work go to her website www.yvettehamilton.com and you can read her residency proposal here