Category: Uncategorized
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Strangely enough, it was the question of scale that caused the most problems. You arrive, the mountains tower above you; every time you look at them it’s a shock. Every single word you think of to describe these towers of stone is inadequate. But because you’re an artist or a writer, and because you’ve come…
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I finally arrived in Ngawal on a day when the snow blanketed the valley, reducing visibility on the road to the next bend or so. It was a strangely exhilarating drive, with the narrow roadway disappearing ahead, a mind-stopping drop to one side, and snowflakes clustering thicker and thicker, the further up we climbed. At…
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Currently sitting in a hotel lobby in Kathmandu, waiting to head out to the airport, and the beginning of a very long flight back to Australia. It’s a strange place to spend a few hours. Groups of trekkers come and go; around the edges of the room are piles of trekking gear, brightly coloured waterproof…
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Picture this. It’s a rainy day in Newcastle, streets awash, gutters overflowing. Mud everywhere. You’re driving an old black van with trade gear rolling around in the back. The rain is so heavy that you can barely see the road, and you desperately hope that other drivers can see you. Finally, you arrive at your…
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Heading off to Dangar Island soon to draw some more boats, so I thought I’d post some of the last images from Gosford Sailing Club. Found I enjoyed drawing boats being prepared for launch just as much as ones already in the water. There’s the drama of the situation – a crew standing around watching…
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Last day of my residency at Lighthouse Arts in Newcastle yesterday. One of those days when you try to finish things, in this case some drawings I’d begun at Gosford Sailing Club the weekend before. Normally it’s a bit of a chore trying to finish stuff in an environment that’s different to where you begun…
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Coming to the end of my Lighthouse Arts residency in Newcastle. There’s something about this space – the constant sound of the sea, white walls, absence of domestic belongings, quiet, steepish trek up the hill to get there – that makes it a remarkable place to create work. Being on top of a headland, overlooking…
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Delighted to announce that I’ve been awarded Creative Australia’s Keesing Studio for Australian writers in Paris! I’ll be heading to France later this year to spend a month working on a memoir/auto-fiction about the year I spent dressed as Marie Antoinette (My Year as a Fairy Tale): can’t wait! The Keesing studio was bequeathed on…
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Tuesday evening is usually pretty dull: nothing much happens in my house. However, last Tuesday was kind of special. The acclaimed writer and mentor Kathryn Heyman, author of Fury, was giving a free masterclass titled Voices & Vision. So I walked through the door marked Zoom, and had a lovely evening listening to Kathryn weave…
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Thoroughly enjoying my artist’s residency at Lighthouse Arts in Newcastle! The residency is located at the top of a headland at the entrance to Newcastle Harbour, in one of a number of white-walled heritage cottages clustered around the base of a stone lighthouse. It’s an incredibly peaceful place to work, with something of the feel…
Helen Hopcroft: an artist's life 