Applications for the 2021 Gunyah artists-in-residence program are now open!


Gunyah artists-in-residence program provides low cost self-contained accommodation for solo, collaboration, group and family short term creative residencies for visual artists, writers, composers, designers, curators, new media and performance artists.

The 2021 residency program will run from May to November, with seven residencies each lasting ten days, Monday to the following Friday week.

2021 residencies at Gunyah will be partially subsidised by the Gunyah owners, so the cost to artists is $360 for ten days or part thereof (for the whole property, not per person). A refundable $60 key deposit is required. Artists are welcome to bring their families and friends, up to six people.

Before applying please read about Gunyah. In your application you'll need to include your contact details, preferred dates, bio and artist statement, three images and a short description of what you plan to do during your residency.

To apply please fill out the online form or email gunyahresidency@yahoo.com 

Applications close Monday 30 November 2020. 

Residency report: Kathryn Cowen

Kathryn Cowen and Natalya Shinn at Gunyah

It is with thanks and gratitude that I reflect on my time at Gunyah. What an unexpected gift it was to step away from the craziness of 2020 life to spend a couple of weeks immersed in my practice at such a special place.

Exploring North Arm Cove near Gunyah

After a few long walks to soak in the surrounding bush and beaches, breathing deeply and fossicking for treasures, I settled into the studio to start drawing and constructing small sculptures. It was a time of play and experimentation interspersed with long chats with my dear friend and fellow artist Natalya Shinn who came along to keep me company.

Fossicking for treasures at a beach nearby

Combining natural materials that I found in the local area such as rocks, driftwood, seed pods, shells and twigs, with synthetic materials that I had brought along with me such as string, feathers, fabric, paint, plastic, beads and polymer clay; I pondered the future of biological forms. A collection of specimens emerged.

Kathryn Cowen, Work in progress - Biofuture Specimens, 2020

The world and how we live in it has changed this year. I am curious as to how our relationship with each other and our environment will adapt as a result. I can only hope it is for the better.

Kathryn Cowen, Work in progress - Biofuture Specimens, under UV light, 2020

Thank you to Kath Fries and the Gunyah Collective for the opportunity to take part in this residency. My cup is full and I am excited to be back in my studio exploring the possibilities generated by the Biofuture Specimens made at Gunyah for an exhibition in 2021.

Kathryn Cowen
October 2020

Kathryn Cowen, Work in progress - Biofuture Specimens, under UV light (detail), 2020

Upcoming artist-in-residence: Riona Tindal

Riona Tindal

Riona Tindal is an artist and passionate conservationist based in Newcastle. She completed her PhD in Natural History Illustration at the University of Newcastle in 2016. Riona recently expanded her creative arts career as the Deaf Arts Coordinator with Accessible Arts and Co-facilitator of the Artist Run Initiative Inside Out in Maitland 2016-2018. Sharing her time between Sydney and the Hunter region, she is a strong advocate for inclusive, cultural accessible arts. Riona was born Deaf, she grew up surrounded by nature and takes inspiration from the environment in her creative practice. Being Deaf brings its own unique isolation, discrimination, different communication methods and attitudes, so Riona sees things visually and differently. However, deafness is not a main identifying part of her, nor is it a defining disability for Riona, but rather an aspect of a multifaceted part of her being. Art is her language. Riona uses arts as a visual communicative language working with mixed media, illustration, photography, typographic design, painting, poetry and writing.

Riona Tindal, Leaf Utopia study - detail from Moss Garden, watercolour and pencil on timber board

In both her art practice and conservation advocacy, Riona seeks out the impact of climate change in different landscapes, and these firsthand experiences have a profound effect on her arts practice. In 2018 Riona travelled solo through central Australia for two months, experiencing the diverse uniqueness of the landscape, reflecting on the symbolic shapes and structures that show the beauty of the earth that is slowly being destroyed or transmuted to serve humanity’s needs. Riona is expanding and exploring traditional and contemporary arts practice, with science, seeking to combine the three as a trinity in the arts. Conservation through science and arts where she hopes to educate the audience around our rapidly vanishing earth, climate change, species driven to extinction, communicating through creative media where it can immediately capture the audience and engage. 


Riona Tindal, Scientific illustration of a frog, 2016, stippling ink, 27 x 21.9 cm


During my residency I plan to develop poetry, narrative storytelling and imbedding poetry working on watercolour sheets and recycled timber boards to explore pathways that make connections and move between the rigidity of science into storytelling and communicative visual language.

You can see more of Riona's work on Instagram @riorioartist


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