Sydney Sojourn

2 minute read

Art

Design

Travel

Written by Murray Crane

We recently spent a short few days in Newcastle, Australia with artists Lottie Consalvo and James Drinkwater.

Their home is a heritage-listed commercial building designed in 1892 by eminent architect Frederick Menkens. Originally built as Wood’s Chambers and later known as the Longworth Institute, it remains one of the city’s most assured late-Victorian façades - domed, symmetrical and civic in scale. Conceived for commerce and later a place of cultural exchange, it still carries that intent. The proportions are generous. Ceilings are improbably high. Staircases broad and deliberate.

Inside, it has been adapted rather than preserved into stillness. The building now holds two distinct studio spaces - his and hers - as distinctive as their work and the mediums they work in. Each has its own rhythm and discipline. Both are clearly working environments. Light moves cleanly across worn boards. Canvases shift as work develops. Nothing feels staged.

Throughout the rooms, their own paintings sit alongside works by artists they respect. Pieces lean before they are hung. Books stack where they are being read. The house reflects process rather than presentation. It feels active and purposeful.

Though brief, our time was well used - an ocean swim, a bush walk, long conversations folded around meals and music. Newcastle has a steadiness to it - industry and coastline in equal measure. Less theatre than Sydney. More horizon.

The visit continued conversations that began last year when we hosted a dinner at Cazador with Lottie. The tone remains consistent: direct discussion, shared references, shared tastes and a few firm disagreements. The sort of exchange that sharpens thinking.