Rose Barrett: 2011 Mt Narryer Cattle Ranch Sculpture Camp

In 2011 I attended the 2011 Sculpture Camp which was part of the Central TAFE sculpture course. We went to Mt Narryer Cattle Ranch and spent a total of an entire week up there with no phone signals, internet, or contact from the outside world so we could concentrated on making our artwork with no interruptions or distractions. We had to make a total of at least two pieces, one being a major piece of artwork and the other being a minor piece of artwork. Unfortunately within the first two days of camp a majority of our group became sick with a really bad flue that was going around before we left for camp (the rain and cold nights didn't help us either) and to my annoyance I became one of them sick people so i was mainly house bound for the whole camp so i got to make little to no artwork. I took a lot of photographs though of the amazing landscape and the other artworks being created along with making many sketches and writing down stories that the owners Carol and Sandy would willingly tell us either if we would pop in and chat over a cup of tea or whilst they attended our nightly meals cooked by us. In the end I ended up dragging myself out of the house to go and collect some native flowers which i started to make stitchery patterns with. I also collected some stone and bones and made a a combination of the bones and stones into ornaments by carving designs into the bones and then attaching the different coloured blue, green, pink, and purple stones to them. These became my minor works which then inspired me to make my major work titled "Ever lasting Blossom". I created it with the intention of making a flower out of re-usable material from the Mt Narryer resource tip we had access to along with making it so that although it would be an everlasting flower it could also facilitate the use of a flower pot allowing living plants to grow inside of it. I used a cement mixer, corrigated iron, the natural red dirt, and the natural wild flowers to create my major art piece. I would of loved to make more work but was determined that on the next sculpture camp i would attend that i would make a bigger major work and experiment more with the actual making of the artwork rather than the research side, I was determined to let the site speak to me more the next time I attended. Over all i was really happy with my results at this camp and eager to get into my work back at Central TAFE along with eager to attend another camp.