2017 Gunyah Artists Announced

Thank you to everyone who applied for the 2017 Gunyah AIR program. 
Congratulations to the seven artists who have been selected for next year: 

Installation artists - Jaki Middleton & David Lawrey 

Sculptor - Bethany Wheeler

Photographer - Richard Glover

Textile artist - Julie Paterson

Writer - Merridy Eastman

Musician - Milan Ring

Painter - Rochelle Haley

Gunyah waterfront, photo Kath Fries

Rebecca Waterstone: artist-in-residence Nov 2016

Rebecca Waterstone working in the Gunyah studio, Nov 2016
"As I come to the end of my time here, I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to step out of the busy-ness of daily life, to have quiet time, and a natural, nurturing environment to think and work in. The experience has supported and enlivened my artistic practice, as well as given me some much-needed respite. 
Rebecca Waterstone working in the Gunyah studio, Nov 2016
I have found the experience particularly valuable in terms of consolidating ideas that have been floating around for a while – the quiet space, without distractions, or pressure to produce – has allowed a clarity of thinking that has not been possible in normal daily life.
Rebecca Waterstone, Working in progress i, Gunyah 2016 

 There was plenty of messing about with new media, thinking, and doing my best to remember 'failure' is just a part of the process and is actually very helpful!
Rebecca Waterstone, Working in progress ii, Gunyah 2016
I have particularly benefited from the chance to resolve ideas for a few exhibitions next year, and to outline plans for these.
Rebecca Waterstone, Works in progress in the Gunyah studio, Nov 2016

 Gunyah is a wonderful place and I highly recommend it to all creative people in need of space and time to work."
Rebecca Waterstone
Gunyah residency report
November 2016

Applications Open for 2017 Gunyah AIR program


Visual artists, writers, composers, performance artists, curators, new media, designers, arts administrators and other creators are welcome to apply for solo, collaborative, family and group residencies. The 2017 Gunyah AIR program will run from May to November, with seven residencies, each for eleven days.



Applications will be accepted up until 5pm 30 November 2016. 

Please read "About Gunyah" before applying. Note there is a residency fee of $360 (for eleven days or part thereof) and a $50 key deposit. You'll need your own vehicle to access the North Arm Cove area and Gunyah. 

To apply: download the Gunyah AIR application form -DOWNLOAD HERE- just fill it out then email with three images to gunyahresidency@yahoo.com 

If you have questions about the application process or if you have trouble downloading the application form please email gunyahresidency@yahoo.com

Lesa Hepburn: artist-in-residence Sept 2016

Lesa Hepburn, Working in my journal under a work in progress on the Gunyah shore

"Fossicking for fungi, drawing with pigments from eucalypt resin and sitting each evening with a warm glowing fire and reviewing my images of the day. These are some of the deep impressions left with me after my residency at Gunyah. I got back into making simple marks on my papers, bringing a supply of my handmade cotton rag paper and experimenting with found pigments and implements.

Lesa Hepburn, Black ink and tree pigment drawing on cotton rag paper. Gunyah 2016

Over the two weeks, Gunyah, North Arm Cove and Port Stephens gradually unfolded all their offerings as I became more aware of feathers, flowers, fibres and fishing. I investigated “a line in the water” from the jetty, on the shore and from our little Heron dinghy as we sailed from North Arm Cove towards Lemon Tree Passage. We watched dolphins in the evening, small stingrays at the beach and wallabies in the Gunyah Garden.  Some mild fishing success brought us face to face with unusual creatures.

Lesa Hepburn, A line in the water - Heros Bay, 2016
I spent much time each day and evening continuing my string making (video) and taking full advantage of the varied lights, textures and colours of gunyah and surrounds. Seeing my string sculpture in different ways each day has been most fulfilling.

Lesa Hepburn, Conversation in progress, Gunyah 2016

I made new papers, new string works and combined these in and around some of my favourite trees including the casuarinas on the Gunyah shoreline, where I also took time just to sit and absorb the surrounds and record some of these feelings in my journals.

Lesa Hepburn, New works in progress, Gunyah 2016

 I have returned home with new visions, new techniques and materials and a refreshed appreciation of the natural environment and our interactions both at Gunyah and at home in Scarborough. I had time to refine my works and to become more precise with some of the ideas and forms that have been on my mind for a long while."


Lesa Hepburn 
Gunyah residency report
September 2016

Rebecca Waterstone: upcoming artist-in-residence

 Rebecca with her beeswax and oil works at her 2016 exhibition ‘Ethereal’, in Sydney.

Rebecca Waterstone is an artist and teacher currently based in the Blue Mountains. She has recently returned to Australia from Scotland where she taught, ran a gallery on the Isle of Skye and was Vice Chair of the Board of ATLAS, a contemporary art organisation on Skye supporting artists to make extraordinary ideas happen in the landscape. Rebecca is currently studying Masters of Art by coursework at UNSW Art and Design and was a finalist in the 2016 Tim Olsen Prize for Drawing.

Rebecca Waterstone, mixed media drawings in embroidery hoops

Rebecca's work makes connections between dualities of place both physical and imagined. Exploring location, distillation, edges and colour, she works across drawing, painting, photography, with wax, film, sound and scent. She seeks to draw attention to opacity and translucency, absorbed and reflected light that can be contained within the surface of the picture plane. Layers of veiled, minimal imagery creates a tension between obfuscation, containment and revealing of information. Veils of colour and topographical mark-making sit below the surface. Rebecca's works seek to resonate with the viewer and evoke a concentrated sense of experience.

Rebecca Waterstone, The Lost and Found, cast beeswax and oil paint with eucalyptus oil,
with Camden Cooperative NSW butterbox lid found in Scotland

During my residency, I plan to explore the area, ‘tap into’ and also re-connect with the essence of the location. My work is concerned with a deep sense of place, and having spent all my childhood holidays in Port Stephens, I have a strong connection here and it has special significance for me. I'm looking forward to delving into the area again and discovering how how this will evidence itself in my work. I plan to gather visual, geographical, topographical, elemental and weather-specific information focusing on materiality as a metaphor for experience of a place. The change of environment will give me a fresh perspective, responding to locations that are on the edge of coasts or mountains, and having recently returned to Australia from Skye, the idea of the ‘antipode’ resonates strongly - as Scotland and NSW are diametrically opposite points, connected by a straight line through the centre of the Earth.



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