Hill End Residency

My month-long stay in Murray's Cottage (November, 2015), as part of the Bathurst Regional Gallery Hill End Artist in Residence program, was an incredibly inspiring and productive experience! Working both in the Murray's studio and outdoors in Golden Gully, it was a great period of artistic growth and experimentation. I immersed myself in getting to know a landscape that has been painted many times in Australian Art History, a landscape that I found deeply wounded (by colonial mining and continued erosion), yet ultimately transcendent and endlessly intriguing. I am very grateful to Bathurst Regional Gallery for the opportunity, to ArtsACT for their Out-Of-Round Funding support, and to the community of Hill End for welcoming me with open arms! Scroll on down to see a few photos and some images of the work that I created (click to enlarge):

 <<--- Fallen Sentinels, 2015, pencil in concertina book, 21cm x 221cm --->>

Sheffield International Artist's Book Prize

It's wonderful to have Thunder-Rush, my artist's book of sketches and poetry from the Franklin River, included as part of the 2015 Sheffield International Artist's Book Prize currently on display at Bank Street Arts in Sheffield, England. The exhibition is the inspiration and centrepiece for the Opening Up the Book festival and showcases over 200 books from nearly 400 individual entries from 42 different countries. The exhibition runs from the 7th - 31st October, but I'm pleased that Thunder-Rush will remain in England afterwards as part of the Bank Street Arts Permanent Collection.

Thunder-Rush Rapid, concertina book with clamshell box (digital print with archival pigment inks, cover features hand printed woodcut), 12cm x 16cm x 3cm (dimensions of box), 2015, edition of 10

Sketches from Fiji

Shards of sky grasped by shivering Palms

First star pierces blue-grey twilight

Thin trunks sway with elastic rhythm

 

A howling crescendo

Cuts through velvet black

Tent shells rattle and resound

 

Come morning

Trade winds roll on the backs of breakers

Erratic gusts fling up sheets of spray

 

Countless beads of liquid reflect

A fleeting flash, a heartbeat

A rainbow shattering into the sea

 

Annika Romeyn

14th -24th June 2015: a truly amazing journey - kayaking, camping and snorkeling our way along the Yasawa Island chain in Fiji. Thanks Mum, Dad, Judd, Aporosa, Wanita and Terry!