Australia Here I Come!

Golly, the time has come. Suddenly! We leave in the morning.

There are so many things to think about when you aren't going to be around for such a long time. We have even had to organise friends to come and live in our house, so it won't be empty.

I'm really hoping I won't get there and discover something important we forgot. I think it's all pretty sorted. The people I am working with at the research centre in Perth have helped with all the boring stuff, like my work visa and insurance requirements (don't you just hate all that side of things?), and they have organised some lovely accommodation too. Plus, so that I don't have to fill my luggage with paint and paper, all the art materials for my residency have been ordered in Australia and delivered direct to Perth.

I will post pictures of what I am up to on Facebook and Instagram, just as soon as I can, and will keep up the blog for the 2 months I'm in Perth, so do keep looking in. In the meantime, I thought you might like to see a few of the sketches I did at our most recent sketchcrawl, on Saturday. It was lovely to do it so close to me leaving, as it was a chance to say goodbye to my UK sketch-buddies. I'll be meeting up with Urban Sketchers Perth when I get there.

We spent our day in the centre of Sheffield, in the lovely Winter Gardens. I have had a few goes at this over the years and it is very tricky, as there is just so much going on. I think this is the first time I have felt that I have coped with it reasonably well.

That's a good omen I hope for my painting time in Oz, not just for my 2 month residency, but also the travelling time, when we'll be in Western Australia, and I hope to do lots of painting out and about.

Wish me luck!