I started painting in Christchurch New Zealand about 15 years ago. I lived for 10 years in Halswell. I had a good space there to paint. It's not a studio open to the public but I painted thousands of Moons, comets and stars in New Zealand.

Now I live rurally in SW Australia. Don't be imagining dry sand and flies though, the SW is an amazingly lush paradise of incredible wild life. We live in a rural area next to Bridgetown WA. The sweetest historic township I think I've even seen. It's hilly, green in the winter and golden in the summer, and if you can imagine an Australian version of Tolkien's Hobbit shire that is exactly where we live. 

My studio is a converted garage, honestly not sure how I'll go in the summer as the walls are going to really heat up. I converted it into a dark place for the glow in the dark painting, painted and cleaned the interior, kicked out the scarily larger than usual spiders and the huge black king skink that was living in there. They are harmless and cute but fast on their legs! I had to dig a french drain around the studio garage as it had flooded there and brought a layer of red dirt on the floor for many years by the looks of it. 

From the doorway I can look out on our paddock that slopes down to the road at the bottom of the gully. We have a huge dead Jarrah gum tree in our sheep paddock that was killed by lightning, it's a forest giant, too big to remove and has a bees nest in. I see all kinds of birds in the bare Jarrah branches from where I work. Black Cockatoos, pink cockatoos, ravens, kookaburras. I definately hear them too. 

At night the stars are much brighter than even the rural areas around Christchurch as there's almost no light pollution out here. At 30 minutes drive away from here you really enter the darkest night skies that can be found anywhere with zero light pollution. 

Our families been working pretty hard in the last six months to clear up the property I don't get much down time but I have gone out on the veranda at night and seen the Milky Way in the sky as bright as I have ever seen it. Its's been at least a decade I've painted the galaxy in glow paint so seeing the actual definition of it in real life instead of just a slightly misty patch is pretty cool. 

I've also noticed that the Southern Cross is lower on the horizon and even the Moon looks different here, it is more angled like a boat or a bowl than the New Zealand C shape. 

And this is hopefully where I'll spend the rest of my life at.... and yes! I have been planting trees, many of them the same as the ones in Halswell, except on a much larger scale. Instead of one beautiful bay tree we were able to plant seven! I've sneaked in my favourite coral bark maples and dozens of fruit and nut trees. My favourites here are the huge lemon scented gums, in the mornings and after the rain the whole property smells of lemon eucalyptus. I love the Australian woolly bushes, they look like conifers but are as soft as wool, and the flowering gums we don't have these in Christchurch, with beautiful bright pink and red flowers. I found some NZ iris and have planted those in the rock garden at the back of the house. 

Was it worth it to move to Australia? Yes for sure. The one difficulty I have living in a remote area means very occasionally I am a day or two later in my shipping and getting painting supplies is harder.  I don't think there is a difference in my shipping times though, Australian post has been good and I've figured out how the couriers work. If you buy a large painting I first drop it off at the rural stockfeed store that doubles as a courier pick up point. It's good for buying fencing wire or sheep lice spray at the same time. Then if it is heading to the eastside of Australia it is carried by three seperate couriers.

There is no postal service to my gate and everything must go through depots or parcel lockers or the post shop. It's ok but I miss the easy doorstep deliveries and pick ups of Christchurch. I have walked into Bridgetown a few times with star ceilings and canopies to post because I didn't have the car. It took me two hours walking over the hill and back. 

So that is a little of where you are buying from, SW Australia, best place ever!