I just returned from a fabulous weekend as one of the first artist guests of "Platypus Burra" aka Bathurst Art Retreat.

I feel I have to say something to all of you out there who want an amazing experience with a wonderful group of people in an isolated beautiful, place just outside of Bathurst. It was just brilliant!!!! Seriously amazingly brilliant.

Christine and I arrived Saturday morning and were met at the junction of two-wheel and four-wheel tracks by our hosts in their 4WD car. These wonderful people, Robbie and Steve Fayle, then took us through the landscape to the retreat house overlooking the Macquarie Rivier. On the way there we were greeted by a mob of kangaroos who were mildly amused by the carload of creatives ambling by.

As the road swept round to the house we could see a number of individuals down on the beach, standing in front of their easels, looking in various directions up, down and across the river. It was a beautiful moment for me to realise that I was shortly going to be down there myself.

We arrived and put our things in our room and then took our gear down to the river, aided if we needed assistance, by caretakers Merv and Trish Burley. At the water's edge we met fellow art students and our amazing tutor David Lake (you can find him on facebook here https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010938373069).

We had two demos from David each day, and following the demo (which took him no more than 29.5 minutes each time) we all worked on our own chosen vistas 'en plein air' with David moving continually between us all (sometimes across a distance of more than a km) providing feedback and suggestions or merely positive noises of agreement (which made me smile to hear). Between plen air sessions, we were fed by the amazing Fayles and Burleys, and let me tell you that the food was very very very very good. The catering was abundant and way beyond what I expected.

If there are some people you get on with well or if you are on your own... just take a chance and book into a retreat... where you can paint, sketch, lie down and listen to the birdsong, go for a walk along the river or up to the top of the mountain or just eat, drink and be merry. The Fayles and Burleys are wonderful company and all of our conversations lively and interesting. I feel like I have known them all for a very long time after only having met them two short days ago.

It was utterly fabulous. I can't recommend this place highly enough.

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