Skip to main content

<< Back to Archive Index

RESIDENCY AT HILL END

© Judy McDermott

Ozquilt Network Newsletter Issue #35 MARCH 2000

For six weeks in August/Sept last year I was artist in residence at Hill End, a goldmining town out from Bathurst in NSW. In 1872 the largest nugget ever found was mined there. Today there are fewer than 100 residents. Since the 1950's, artists have lived and worked in the area. Originally 'discovered' by artists Friend and Drysdale the Hill End landscape has been a subject for works by Olley, Olsen, Whitely, Lister, Strachan, Firth-Smith, Sharpe, Kingston, Smart, Wright, Spence, Barrett, Haefliger, Bellette, and more. It was the Haefliger/Bellette cottage that is the residence. Wattle and daub of 1870, it was left to the community for use as an artists' cottage. There is a studio in the yard; cement walled and no good for pinning, so I borrowed a pair of large blank canvasses from Mandy Barrett down the street. A local potter helped me set up the workspace - fiddly with only one power point and a rickety table. But there was a fine easel. When I found the illustrious company I'd fetched up in, I wanted to run away back to being anon.

Bathurst Regional Gallery administer the bequest, do the selections, and generally hold your hand. I could only work with what I could carry, so coloured cloth with leaves and mud. Witches brews. Lovely colours, but not orange or red, and that is real scary for me. I'm to talk there on 26 March and probably show next year. I think I'm the first non fine artist, and certainly the first woman of cloth. I also blueprinted onto cloth, using photos taken in Hill End in 1872, then used these to make small pieces inspired by Donald Friend's journals, Tas Drysdales grids, and Hill End. I think I like them but they are not easy to look at. Degenerate and unclear.

I had camped in Hill End 35-40 years ago and, coming back, at once felt this was 'my' landscape. I loved living by myself (first time in my life), was no good at chopping wood or managing the fuel stove, loved the kangaroos and cows on the common surrounding the cottage, and went to the pub for a beer and chat most nights. Hill End has the brightest full moon (I had two) and stars in the whole world. Soon the Donald Friend cottage will also be used as a residency. I think I'll have a go at 'winning' that.

© Judy McDermott 2000

 

Goods and Services Tax (GST) For art quilts purchased in Australia, a Goods and Services Tax (GST) is applicable to those items labelled "includes 10% GST".

For international purchases, the GST is only applicable to those items labelled "includes 10% GST" and where a quilt is purchased and not delivered within 60 days of the date of purchase.