Oz is calling...

So seven months have passed now since I returned from New Zealand, where my life changed significantly and projected me forward to build my business, find temporary work, and to plan my next Antipodean adventure, whilst following my heart to Australia, and Darwin in the Northern Territory.

The last seven months had been challenging, fraught, productive and also hugely satisfying and rewarding.

The double need to plan, and to act spontaneously was continuously present. That feeling of constantly living on the edge of a cliff, knowing that now is the time to leap. To leap, and leap again. Just as the house martin does each trip from the nest, the risk of the fall transforms into the supportive movement of the feathered wing. Hopefully growing stronger with each journey.

Plunging and hitting the ground, although avoided, does not mean you don't deal with turbulence and obstacle. But then the thrill is often at the edge.

This summer the business definitely took a big step forward. Two of the flights took me to two new galleries and shops. Bass Rock Gallery in Dunbar and 17Reasons in Moffat.

Carol Bowman's expert eye at Bass Rock Gallery

Going rural in 17Reasons, Moffat

Both of these creative ventures are run with a resonant joy that is both uplifting and inspirational. These people just radiate a wonderful energy that helps me on this journey. Craft and arty people themselves, they have been successful at growing their passions into successful businesses, and I am very grateful for that.

If art could be created whilst constantly in the presence of these people I'd be a happy chap...alas the work often calls for solitude and focus...but there are ways to bring people around you whilst producing.

A second summer trip saw me return to Scotland, and Edinburgh, to demonstrate one of my latest techniques in crafting.

It is a great experience to chat to people and show others how my particular style reveals itself and the crafted items are made, where the ideas come from, and also potentially encourage others in their creative endeavours.

A blissful afternoon



The great thing about demonstration is that it helps me reinforce my own learning as I describe the process and also learn from people too with their feedback. I aim to carry out workshops in the Art & Craft Collective in June 2018, so watch this space and stay tuned to either Facebook, or Twitter, or this blog.

It also became a time to begin making new contacts in my home county of Norfolk and selling art and craft at Fakenham Makers Market with the kind help of my sister-in-law Christine Good, who has begun to show me the new world of jewellery making...go team!

Setting up stall in St Andrew's Church, Fakenham, Norfolk

This had become a time of juggling...work, art and craft making, seeing friends and family and planning and organising my 6 month trip to Australasia. So much to organise I realised and an enormous amount of discipline, planning and decision making needed. There would be many moments of feeling frayed at the edges.

Now the countdown is on...back to wandering, but this time with a very strong pull, and goal in mind. Although events can take you to unexpected places, and although Australia is of course a fantastically wonderful country to explore...my path is guided not by place, nor by wanderlust, and perhaps not even by my artwork, but by a much greater pull of the heart.

It's time to take to the wing once more.

And so this brings me to October, and as I turn my eyes to the autumnal sky, the soft lonely cry can be heard.

The geese are flying south.
And the air is calm.
Still and cold, with melancholic notes
Of twilight shards.

The geese are flying south
And I stop and stare,
Alert to the cusp of coming winter;
Reflecting the deep indigo shine
Of the orb's gentle curve.

The geese are flying south.
The geese are flying south, at last.