Nathan snaps up a summer art escape
By Mark Brandon
Teaching art is very different from making
it. And with the “all work and little play” focus in today’s
society, a refreshing new residency program from The Bundanon Trust
is giving teachers the opportunity to pursue their own arts desire.
The program offers teachers a residency
at Riversdale, on the banks of the Shoalhaven River, during school holidays.
The teachers can use this time to work
on their own art’s practice, according to Bundanon trust education
manager Gailyn Cooper.
“This new program is like a little
retreat for teachers, a retreat that is only available in the school
holiday break,” Ms Cooper said.
“We have been running teachers’
retreat weekends for a while where a group of teachers stay at Riversdale
and take part in workshops and tours. But these retreats were more to
introduce teachers to the education centre and program, in the hope
they’d bring their classes back at some stage.
“The Trust then realised that teachers
themselves don’t have much time to follow their own arts practice
and so the new residency was born.”
The second, and most recent, teacher in
residence was Sydney-based Nathan Kelly.
Mr Kelly juggles work as art teacher at
St Patrick’s College at Strathfield as well as a career in professional
photography.
He has worked as a professional photographer
since 1993, having his worked published in many major magazines and
newspapers in Australia and overseas.
The residency has been beneficial, Mr
Kelly said, because it allowed him to further his own arts career outside
of school.
“I am an art Teacher, but also an
artist in my own right,” he said.
“However it’s very difficult
to be both, because when you’re a teacher a lot of other stuff
comes with that, things that take up a lot of time on the weekend.
“Just to get three weeks away from
family and friends and all my other commitments and come down to a place
like this is fantastic.
“This residency has given me a clean
head to return for term one next week.”
Lighting up The Sky (Insert)
Lighting up The Sky (Insert)
Nathan Kelly spent his days at Bundanon
swimming and enjoying the sunshine. By Night he went to work photographing
trees and lighting up big sections of the bush.
“Arthur Boyd did a lot of tree scenes,
but being a painter he could choose what colour the trees could be,”
Mr Kelly said.
“A photographer can’t really
do that, but then I thought if I photographed the trees at night I could
light them with whatever colours I liked.”
Mr Kelly is planning to exhibit his night
scene photography in Sydney in June or July. He also hopes to bring
his work back to Nowra later in the year to be exhibited in the Shoalhaven's
new arts centre. |