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by Catherine Martin
 From the moment I arrived in Alice Springs I felt a sense of tranquility far removed from the “Sydney rat race”. I turned my mobile phone back on out of habit only to find a desperate message from my 28 year old daughter who had broken up with her boyfriend. This only reinforced my reason for this trip…to escape from it all…and I did do just that.
The first night was spent in a hotel in Alice where we met the rest of the group who turned out to be 10 fabulous women who bonded like bondcrete to concrete and I immediately knew that these friendships would move into more long term relationships which will continue well into the future.
We attended a brief where we were given our “supplies for the week”. A small piece of foam ½ inch thick which would become our “padding” for sitting stops during the trip and an aluminum mug which would become the tea cup, the wine glass and the paint mixing utensil!
The word “tent” was mumbled amongst a few of us novices but that was all it was, a “mumble”, as there were no tents, in fact no toilets either and of course no showers. Well there was a “bush” toilet in camp but when in Rome … !
So there was no need to take unnecessary equipment like shampoo and make up and if you were thinking of taking a hair dryer you would be mad… in fact there was no need for mirrors.
 Next morning we enjoyed an extended last shower that would last for the next 6 days so we were all looking very glamorous with our blow dried hair, knowing full well that this look would deteriorate over the next week!
Before we headed out we had one more participant to pick up…Johnny Japaljarri Possum (brother of the infamous Jimmy Possum) who was going to travel with us. I had no idea at this point what an impact this would have on the trip. So Johnny sat up the front with “The Driver” (as Johnny called him) in his brand new clothes bought by his “brother” and our fearless leader, Raymond. The cook as called “Young fella” and Johnny would provide us with lots a laughs during the week to follow.
So off we headed out Into The Blue and commenced our creative journey on the Desert Artist Tour into the Never Never.
On arrival at our first camp we were given our swags (did I mentioned there were no tents ?) and we proceeded to find a private spot to set up camp for the night. This form of accommodation would continue for the next 5 five nights and we would experience minus 3 degrees and ice on our swags on at least two mornings.
Our first trek took us along a small section of the Larapinta Trail. The scenery was amazingly beautiful, all senses were aroused. The smells of the bush, the varying colours of the rocks and grasses would be the start of my artistic metamorphosis.
 Every night at “show and tell” we would discuss our discoveries of the day and I was finding that the red rocks now showed hues of magenta, eggplant and teal blue and the grasses were silver and lavender and as the days went on the rocks were not just rocks but wonderful forms of cubistic shapes forming creating images which led to the commencement of my Desert Art.
Travelling with us was renowned art teacher, Professor Liz Ashburn. A highly regarded teacher and artist who has forty years experience teaching workshops to artists in the areas of drawing, sculpture, painting and photography. Liz nurtured and encouraged us to “think outside the square” and use new mediums and forget about paint brushes and use sticks and rocks and we started to produce our own forms of “bush art”
The week merged into more walks into beautiful places, taking the mind into a wonderful meditative state conjuring up new ideas, colour schemes and taking bush print making to a whole new level. At night I would dream of colours merging into beautiful images and even after my return I am still having these wonderful experiences.
Every day the colours in the landscape would mesmerize and transform us into addicted bush artists who would grab any opportunity to place their foam mat on the spiky spinifex to draw and paint and absorb more of this truly beautiful place.
 Trekking into Ormiston Gorge with its beautiful rock formations, colours changing with the light of the day was an absolute highlight complete with a dingo passing as we sat in this heavenly place drawing to our hearts content.
Stanley Chasm also presented us with a canvas of a twisting maze of gorges, abstract tree and bark formations giving us another dose of inspiration sending us into complete artistic contentment.
The interaction with indigenous people during the trip was amazing. To sit around a camp fire with Johnny Japaljarri and watch him create dot paintings and listen to his stories was priceless. On the last night we camped on private aboriginal land and visited a women’s sacred site - the energy in this place was incredible and it was a great privilege to have experienced such a wonderful moment in time.
All in all the entire trip was an amazing experience and I can’t wait for the next one.
Thanks Raymond!!
For more information about the next Desert Artist Tour visit Into the Blue.
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