I am currently exhibiting my artwork at M16 Artspace in Canberra. In 1957 the building opened as Griffith Primary School, and I was in the first intake of students at the school.

The opening paragraph of my Artist Statement reads “The landscape, sea, coast, and open spaces can be powerful, emotive places of exploration, reminiscence, and memories. Barbara Dawson’s ‘Layered Land’ series of drawings and textiles investigates the way a place is remembered. In the mind’s reinterpreting details are altered, omitted, and become imbued with one’s own emotional outlook.”

Over the past year I have been thinking about and creating art for Layered Land: Time, Fragility and Repair, which is due to open at M16 Artspace in Canberra on 21 March

The end of the year fast approaches. I feel so lucky to live where I live and to be able to share the season with friends.

As well as exhibiting my art in solo or in duo shows I enter my work in Art Shows and Competitions. I have entered two this year. The first was the Shoalhaven Art Society’s Annual show at our Regional Gallery. One of my textiles which I re-named ‘Memoirs of Orion Beach’ won a Highly Commended in the members section.

People often ask me do you allocate time and days to your art. Why do I have to do that I think? I work in my studio every day. I wonder if they think I am being selfish or indulgent. I am drawn to be in my studio with a view out to our native garden as others may be to drawn to a good book. It is a large room with a big glass sliding door that leads outside to the garden.

I am thinking about re-exhibting my textile and drawings as I think they need another outing. I am applying for a few venues and will do some more work. I also want to write my mothers biography.

'Weathering a Life’ opened on Saturday 27 January. It was a hot day in Sydney but the Gallery was full of excited and enquiring people. In the main Gallery is collaboration between sisters Jillian Culey and Carolyn Dance.

A few weeks after the exhibition opening I travelled up to Canberra again. The weather this weekend was glorious. The fields were full of flowers and leafy grasses.

The weather is changing. Everyone is aware of it. We are having hotter summers with more severe bushfires and at present we are beset with flooding rains. This is a global issue although each of us does try to make a difference.

My exhibition ReCOVER at Gallery 76 Queen Street Sydney is done and dusted. My story was launched and it received positive feedback. It really looked lovely in that venue, one of the reasons I chose it.

I don't know if I am tempting fate or there is such a thing but this will be the third time that this exhibition has been advertised to open. Varying lockdowns have forced cancellation on this event.

The theme for this year’s IWD Festival in the Shoalhaven LGA was 'Looking Back and Moving Forward: Journeys of Resilience.' The IWD committee decided that 2021 would take the form of Digital Festival. The categories were Visual Arts, Performance, Sound and Music and Young women.

Before all the hoo-ha and massive exodus to seaside towns for the holidays we made a quick getaway to the North Coast. We chose Tea Gardens/Hawkes Nest area, as I really liked the names. It conjures up images. I did mean to ‘Google’ why those towns were called this but I did not.

Many years ago while teaching I was gifted an old Etching Press. This had lain neglected in storage at Strathnairn for the last ten years. It was old and rusted.

Earlier this year I applied and was fortunate to receive a Professional Development Grant from the Shoalhaven Arts Board. I requested that I be funded to participate in an advanced skills printmaking workshop with Jo Hollier, a respected Canberra artist and art tutor in drawing, painting, etching and printmaking.

I spent the day with my friend Leslie. We were creating prints that will be used in a Skype session in the ‘Laterals’ embroidery group next week. I had not mono printed on fabric for many years and was keen to see the results.

For those of you who do not know me I am a woman of a certain age who has had many differing careers. Not that this has anything to do with 'in the time Covid' except I wonder if many careers and a long and relatively healthy life lead to resilience.