Upon arrival at the Purnati Arts centre I was given a welcome drink from one of the friendly staff and was shown around the complex where I was to be the artist in residence for the next month.

This place was very beautiful and away from the hustle & bustle of the ever-changing village of Ubud.
I was taken to a spot near the river overlooking a temple and a small water fall, the sound of the river and waterfall sent me to a place which really helped my creativity.

I instantly thought to myself what a great place to create artworks and just relax.
Initially I was meant to do a series on my time spent in Bali 2 years ago focusing on artworks relating to my experiences with cancer of the tonsil. After 4 days of working on this series I decided to change my direction and forget the past and begin working on the future, so I started to create work involving what was in my life at this time.

There were many beautiful things around me, so my subject matter involved things like temples, volcanoes, ceremonies, beaches, and statues. The beautiful river scene which was right were I was working was the perfect place for a large pastel painting which I could complete on site.
The medium I use when traveling are pastels and mixed media, I find these easy to travel with and there are no problems with customs. Whenever I travel I normally focus on landscape painting doing a series of works of the area in which I travel. But this time I've also created some abstract work relating to my stay at the arts center.

During my stay I traveled to a few different areas in Bali for some onsite artworks. Jasri beach was one location in the northeastern part of Bali, Mount Agung was visible and I was lucky enough to get a pastel painting done of this massive volcano on the day. I also managed to do some beach scenes with mixed media, which also proved to be interesting; this painting was one of my favorites from my stay.
My time at Purnati Arts Center was very productive. It enabled me to really focus on what I love doing, and that is creating interesting artwork.
Thank you to all the staff at Purnati for making my stay such a happy & memorable event.

Paul Jensen