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| Michelle Heldon, Working with shells on the Gunyah foreshore, 2012 |
My time
spent at Gunyah was beautiful. My first reactions were to the house! The Gunyah residence sits surrounded by gum trees facing the sparkling water.
Amazing location - but it was the warmth and uniqueness of the house itself that
captured me. I felt right at home with the log walls and skylights and lofts
and window-seat! My ideal home... stepping down into the studio was
also a delight to see it was right at the bush level with wall to floor windows
looking out to the sea.
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| Michelle Heldon, Gunyah studio, 2012 |
The vision
of my residency was for it to be a parallel with my residency in Lapland
Finland exactly a year earlier. I thought it would be interesting to see the
differences in climate and discovery in Australia, a place where I have spent
most of my life, from Finland, a completely unfamiliar landscape and climate.
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| Michelle Heldon, Leaf line with Gunyah behind, 2012 |
I
was expecting a lot of differences, the most obvious being the temperature, however I was surprised by some of the similarities in
my discoveries. One of these surprises was that I was expecting a lot more
consistency in Australia - that the landscape would not change very dramatically.
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| Michelle Heldon, Ripple stones, Gunyah 2012 |
In
Finland, I watched the lakes slowly freezing changing every day and the snow
fall creating a whole new landscape over night. At Gunyah, it was
the discovery of the tide and how dramatically the landscape could change with
that. So many of my discoveries were made from spending a few hours on the
beach or a rock and watching - a whole new world would be revealed!
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| Michelle Heldon, Shell adorned shoe, Gunyah 2012 |
I adapted
the same process as in Finland, Going out into the surround area everyday and
collecting, recording discoveries from that particular day. Like a diary I
would reflect back on the day in the studio in the evening, capturing a few
aspects that had an impact on me, with pencil on wood drawings.
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| Michelle Heldon, Waternest drawing, Gunyah 2012 |
In Finland I
used watercolour on paper. These mediums I felt reflected something of
the landscape and climate. Finland with its lakes and ice and Australia with is
dryness and warmth. Again, paralleling Finland, I made detailed watercolour
paintings of the flora in the area. Just like in Finland, at Gunyah, this was
quite a meditative process to sit with the amazing tiny uniqueness of the
plants that easily are admired from afar but not often studied in detail.
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| Michelle Heldon, Seaweed tree and Seaweed tree drawing on chair, Gunyah 2012 |
During my
time at Gunyah I also spent time making site specific works out in the
landscape. I've always loved the work of Andy Goldsworthy and have enjoyed
reading about his experiences making transient art in nature. I did a little of
'drawing' or forming lines on the frozen lakes in Finland but I did many more
at Gunyah as I could spent a lot more time outside. These works resonated
with me the most. I felt it really was an honouring of these wonderful details
I was being captured by.
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| Michelle Heldon, Leaf pond, Gunyah 2012 |
Rearranging white shells to highlight naturally formed
patterns on the rocks.
Bringing together strands of seaweed to create a line out to the
sea.
Collecting white driftwood and letting it rest in the amazing creases
of a revealed rock shelf.
Using Casurina needles to gently sit like little
nests in the mini rockpools.
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| Michelle Heldon, Highlighted rocks, Gunyah 2012 |
It's poetic I think, that these works sit in nature
for just a short period of time and then, with the shift of the wind or the
incoming tide, disappear and return to their surroundings. They remain only in the
photographic record and my memory of the creation process.
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| Michelle Heldon, Working in the Gunyah studio, 2012 |
It was
wonderful to sit and look at the Gunyah work along side my Finland work - I hope to
bring this together in an exhibition next year. Thankyou to Gunyah for hosting
me, I had an amazing time.
Michelle Heldon
November 2012
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| Michelle Heldon, Dyl Rocks, Gunyah 2012 |
