Newsletter
11 August 2025
From the Studio…
Greetings!
Welcome to the new edition of In the Studio for a peek behind the scenes for some Season Noticing, an Artwork in Focus and a confession about where the real work happens. I hope you enjoy it! Please feel free to pass on the email with this link to anyone who you think may enjoy it.
Seasonal Noticing
We are in deep mid-winter here on Cammeraygal Country but I must let you know that after the July edition, I was sitting on the sand at Balmoral Beach with a friend, happily sketching and staring out at the water when something black rose up out of it… It was indeed a whale!
You might have heard about the curious creature that spent a day in Sydney Harbour, delaying ferries at Circular Quay, exploring the bays and generally doing some sightseeing. Well, about 2pm it swam over to Balmoral where it hung out for a while to our delight, frolicking, exhaling and waving its fins. How lucky were we! I even popped it into my sketch to record the moment (can you spot its dark fin?)
Some other seasonal things… my fruit and veggie box delivered each week has lately included blood oranges, those luscious, juicy fruit we can enjoy at this time of year. I included one in a grid artwork that is currently in progress. Perhaps it will be finished for the next newsletter, there is tale to tell about that artwork…
I was also very happy to see a Cherry Blossom tree beginning to bloom. Perhaps Spring is nearly here.
Artwork in Focus
Frida and Diego’s Kitchen, La Casa Azul
I made this artwork as I dreamed of Mexico. Dreamed of travelling to Mexico City and visiting Frida Kahlo’s home. I studied images and videos I found online and read accounts of others’ visits, of the emotion they felt standing in Kahlo’s home, seeing the items that she used, imagining her time in this home, built by her father, where she grew up and which she later shared with her husband Diego Riviera. I love this room – its bright colours, the names Frida and Diego spelt out on the wall, the collection of sturdy-looking pots lined up and ready for use. It is a room that is both beautiful and practical, a workroom where a different kind of nourishment to her art was created. Look at that table and its comfortable chairs, what conversations would have taken place here!
To draw something is to learn it, you must look closely and study your subject. For this artwork I even used a virtual tour, zooming in and out to see the details, hovering over pots and spoons like a curious, culinary ghost. And yet I know that it will be different when I stand in that room, for I am excited to say that later this year I will visit Mexico and go to La Casa Azul!
The original artwork hangs on the wall in my lounge room where it provides a cheerful burst of colour and a connection to an artist I admire and to a home on the other side of the world. If you feel a similar affinity or curiosity for Frida Kahlo, you might like to check out the giclee prints of this artwork available in a variety of sizes in my shop.
Studio? What studio?
After my son moved out, we gained a room. It has become a combination of spare room/studio/store room/office and general dumping ground. (It is amazing how having some extra space has meant that belongings once neatly housed in cupboards and drawers and shelves have flexed and spread and somehow grown to fit the space.)
I repainted the walls and washed the curtains. I bought a beautiful old farm table as a work space and moved in a lot of my art supplies. I stuck Corita Kent’s Ten Rules on the door. The studio was ready…
And yet, I find I often return to the end of my dining table/work table/everything table in my main living area. The light is great, I can look out on my beloved balcony garden and the cats seem to be more relaxed and less likely to bound up onto the art in progress.
I also sit on the floor on my Moroccan rug and sketch on a prop-up easel in front of the telly.
Perhaps one day I will be a proper artist and work in the studio, but for the moment, I roam.
Until next time.
xx Ella
