paintbox

01/09/2026

Congratulations to the Pilbara Art Collective on the launch of this wonderful initiative.

A dedicated platform that brings together Pilbara artists, makers, creative spaces and events is such a valuable addition to our region, creating greater visibility for the extraordinary creative work happening here and strengthening connections across our arts community.

We’re excited to see where PAC goes from here. Congratulations to everyone who has worked so hard to bring it to life!

✨ The Pilbara Art Collective website is now live! ✨

After months of planning, building, connecting and plenty of last-minute problem solving, we’re so excited to finally open the doors to the Pilbara Art Collective online.

This is our soft launch, so while we’re making a few final refinements, you can now jump in, have a look around and see what PAC is all about.

Discover Pilbara artists and makers, shop local art, explore the Pilbara Art Map, find creative places and events, and connect with the incredible creativity happening across our region.

Most of all, PAC is about supporting Pilbara arts and creating a place where our creative community can be seen, discovered and celebrated.

As we settle into launch, we’re also continuing to refine a few behind-the-scenes settings, including postage across our different artists and products, to make sure everything works as smoothly as possible.

A very special thank you to Vanessa Murray from Shut the Front Door for jumping in and being such a huge help with some of the technical issues — and for continuing to help us work through the final website tweaks. Your support has been incredibly appreciated.

A big thank you too to Indra, who is such an important part of the PAC team and quietly gets so much done behind the scenes. And to Elysia Canning and Melanie Wann Johnston, thank you for your inspiration, encouragement and for being part of the thinking and energy behind this journey.

And to the Pilbara arts community — I really can’t express how special it is to have your trust and support. It’s a community I feel incredibly privileged to work alongside, learn from and simply be in the presence of. The generosity, creativity and willingness to support one another is something very special, and I don’t take that trust for granted.

PAC would not be what it is without the artists, makers, creatives and supporters who have come on board, shared their work and believed in what we’re building. Thank you for being part of this journey.

We’re so excited for what comes next — new projects, collaborations, creative opportunities and plenty more ways to celebrate, connect and support arts across the Pilbara.

Have an explore, take a look around and enjoy discovering what’s here.

Website now live:
www.pilbaraartcollective.com.au

This is only the beginning. ❤️

31/08/2026

PAINT & SIP | PILBARA WILDFLOWERS

Last Friday evening, paintbox welcomed a lovely group of friends into the studio for a private Paint & Sip, painting the wildflowers of the Pilbara over two hours of colour, conversation and creativity.

This particular evening came about through a gift certificate I donated to the Nickol Bay Volunteer Bush Fire Brigade for their recent fundraising raffle. The lucky winner gathered nine friends and brought them along to paint together.

I loved being able to contribute something from paintbox to support the work of our local volunteers, and then seeing that donation become an evening shared around the painting table.

Ten canvases, ten very different interpretations of our beautiful Pilbara natives, and a wonderful way to spend a Friday night.

31/08/2026

FRIDAY ARTISTS | THE IMPRESSIONISTS

Last week our Friday Artists began a new artist study inspired by Camille Pissarro’s The Harvest, Pontoise (1881).

We looked at the way Pissarro built a landscape through colour and expressive brushwork, the golden fields, deep greens, changing sky and small marks of colour that bring the countryside to life. Our artists then began translating those ideas into their own paintings, working layer by layer and paying close attention to colour, light and atmosphere.

Some also put the finishing touches on their Monet Houses of Parliament studies, and it was wonderful to see those completed works coming together.

Another week spent looking closely at the work of the Impressionists, not simply copying what they painted, but beginning to understand how they saw.

29/08/2026

Found a little time this evening to sit down and simply let the brushes move on paper.

The last couple of months have felt like a constant loop of planning programs for seven different classes each week, creating sample pieces to teach, developing workshops, writing proposals, and all the work that happens behind the scenes. It can be physically and mentally exhausting. That doesn't even take into account the actual hours teaching and facilitating.

And yet, somewhere within all of that is so much inspiration, joy and gratitude. I get to make a life surrounded by art, and I never want the work of it to make me forget the reason I began.

Tonight, there was no deadline. No class to prepare for. No workshop, proposal or finished piece that needed to become anything.

I just painted.

No expectations. No purpose beyond the simple pleasure of putting brush to paper and seeing where it took me.

And I loved it so much.

Sometimes it is good to return to the place where art asks nothing of you except that you make it. 🩷

27/08/2026

"My life is a dot lost among thousands of other dots." -- Yayoi Kusama, 1929 - 2026

Goodnight, dear lady.

Portrait, 2015, Yayoi Kusama

27/08/2026

TERM 4 ENROLMENTS | EARLY ACCESS

Our enrolment page is currently hidden while we give our existing Core Art students priority access to secure their places for Term 4.

The enrolment page will return on Saturday, 5 September, when Term 4 enrolments will officially open to everyone across all paintbox programs.

This includes our Term 4 Core Art program BOTANICA, alongside two brand-new programs for ages 8yrs through high school, ARTFORM and The Journal Studio.

We’re looking forward to sharing Term 4 with you.

27/08/2026

BRUSH + BOND | Still Life, Their Way

This week, our Brush + Bond artists worked from a simple still life of flowers and vessels — but what emerged was anything but the same.

Bold colour, strong lines, unexpected patterns, tiny details and wonderfully individual interpretations. The same starting point became completely different paintings in every pair of hands.

That’s part of what we love about Brush + Bond: creating side by side, sharing the table and the experience, while still giving each artist room to make the work unmistakably their own.

And these finished pieces have so much personality.

27/08/2026

THE WEDNESDAY ARTISTS | THE IMPRESSIONISTS

A beautiful mix of work from our Wednesday Artists this week.

Our artists continued exploring the Impressionists, working with colour, light and atmosphere while learning that a landscape doesn't need to be painted exactly as we see it. Colour can be pushed, marks can remain visible, and a painting can capture the feeling of a place rather than every detail.

We also finished some wonderfully expressive acrylic paint and oil pastel studies each one unmistakably its own despite beginning from the same inspiration.

One of my favourite things about teaching art: watching the same idea pass through many different hands and never come out quite the same way twice.

27/08/2026

STUDIO NOCTURNE

Around a table filled with artists, something akin to magic happens.

Paint palettes scattered between cups of tea. Brushes reaching into every available jar. Reference images propped beside easels. Conversations drifting across the table, followed by long stretches where everyone disappears into their own work.

Tonight, we had two award-winning artists sitting amongst us; but Studio Nocturne has never been about accolades or comparison. It is about what happens when artists, at different stages of their practice, are given the space and time to simply create alongside one another.

You look across the table and see someone solving a problem with colour. Someone else takes a risk with a background. A conversation sparks an idea. You return to your own painting seeing it slightly differently.

This is exactly what we hoped this space would become.

A place where artists can gather after the day is done, pull out the paints, settle in at the table and make work in the company of other people who understand the joy of making it.

Studio Nocturne at paintbox.

27/08/2026

WILDCRAFT ATELIER | POLYMER CLAY

From tiny hand-shaped beads to wonderfully wonky, little fruits, flowers, creatures and objects — this week our Wildcraft artists finished their polymer clay pieces and brought them together.

After making the beads last week, this session was all about painting, adding details, choosing combinations and threading everything into necklaces and bracelets.

Every piece is completely individual, filled with the little decisions and imperfections that make handmade things so good.

A very colourful finish to our polymer clay project.