The three-week residency with Emily Ball in January 2026 was extraordinary. Six artists shared the experience, each immersed in their own wildly different practice, yet connected by a common commitment to making work.

I have come to realise that residencies give me something I rarely find at home: space, freedom, and time. Space to think clearly, freedom to take risks, and time to follow ideas wherever they lead. In that environment, the work deepens and unexpected possibilities emerge.

The idea of the “mature woman” often suggests completion, as though a final version of the self has been reached. Yet this notion is increasingly being questioned.

Not finished. Still becoming.

Flowers have never been merely decorative. Across centuries of art and culture, they have carried meaning, about love and loss, power and ritual, beauty and decay.

How Music, Singing and Nature Help Artists Move Through Sadness and Creative Block

Curiosity has always been the quiet (sometimes not so quiet) hum beneath my creative journey.

Power, Creativity and the Art of Ageing Well