My Art Journey Continued:Making a Home in Ubud
After our six months living in Ubud, Tim and I came home knowing something had changed. What had once felt like a dream — the idea of actually living in Bali — now felt possible.
So, back in our beautiful 100-year-old cottage in the Perth Hills, where we had lived for the past sixteen years, we began planning an enormous new adventure.
We sold our house and so many of our belongings, keeping only the things that really mattered to us — a few special pieces of furniture, my paintings and Tim’s photographs.
Then the morning came when the Grace Brothers truck arrived to collect our things. It was quite a moment watching our life being packed away. We picked up our suitcases and headed off to begin a completely new chapter.
Making Ubud Home
Moving to Bali certainly had its challenges, but I can honestly say that, for us, the positives far outweighed the negatives.
Life moved at its own pace. Things didn’t always happen when or how we expected them to, and gradually we learnt to let go of the things that really didn’t matter. It was a different way of living, and we embraced it.
We found a wonderful homestay in Ubud called Nando House, which became our home for the next sixteen months while we searched for land and eventually built our own house.
Our little home was very simple. We had one large room that served as both our bedroom and my painting studio, along with a small bathroom and kitchen.
It wasn’t grand, but it was home — and, most importantly for me, there was somewhere to paint.
Finding Our Piece of Bali
Then began the search for land.
For weeks we headed out on the backs of motorbikes, exploring different areas and looking at possibilities. Eventually, we found it — our perfect piece of land.
Once the land was ours, the next challenge was finding someone to turn our ideas into a home. Someone we knew recommended a local builder, and after visiting some of their current projects and seeing their work, we decided they were the right people to build our house.
From Artist to Building Supervisor
I designed the house myself and somehow also became the building supervisor!
Tim and I were on site every day, watching the house slowly take shape, checking the progress and keeping the building team on track.
We were very lucky with the company we chose. They listened to my ideas and were willing to adapt things as we went along — which was probably just as well, because as an artist I was always seeing another possibility!
I wanted the house to feel personal, so during the build I began incorporating special details into it.
One of my favourites was a collection of beautiful pieces of glass given to me by my friend and wonderful glass artist Silvena Ferrario. Rather than simply displaying them, I decided to set them directly into the polished concrete floor.
I loved the idea that these beautiful pieces made by a friend would become part of the fabric of our new home.
Slowly, what had begun as a dream back in Perth was becoming real.
We had sold our home, packed up our lives, moved to another country, found our little piece of land and were now watching a house of our own rise from it.
And, of course, through all of this, I kept painting.
My art journey continues…