Featured Artists
Browse the talented artists taking part in Barrenjoey Artwalk 2026
Amanda Fuller
Always a creative soul I started my career as a High School Art Teacher before returning to study painting at National Art School. Since then I have travelled extensively to further my painting studies both in Australia and overseas. Primarily working in oil paint my focus has been landscape and still life genres that balance resilience and vulnerability, often reinterpreting art-historical traditions through a contemporary lense. I have been selected for various art prizes including the Ravenswood Art Prize, Mosman, Gosford and Waverley and Grace Cossington Smith Art Prize. My home and studio are in Newport
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Amanda Tye
At the core of Tye’s practice is a search for balance, bringing order to chaos through the language of line and shape. Fragmented forms are intuitively reworked and rearranged until a sense of harmony and stillness begins to emerge. Through her practice, her paintings become both emotional landscapes and quiet acts of resolution. “My current practice is about walking for hours in the landscape that pulls my attention. Painting for me is a combination of reliving an experience, desire, energy and bringing order after having pulled it apart to understand it.” – Amanda Tye. Tye grew up in the heart of the bush on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, studied Fine Arts at the University of New South Wales, graduating in 2000. She then went on to complete her Bachelor of Art Education and taught Visual Arts and photography for 15 years, all while practising her painting. In 2017, she left teaching to pursue a full-time career as an artist, and now has a studio surrounded by bushland. Tye has been a finalist in The Northern Beaches Environmental Art Prize 2024, National Emerging Art Prize, ACB selects 2023, the Northern Beaches Art Prize 2021, Southern Buoy Landscape Prize 2020, Glover Art Prize 2019, The Fleurieu Art Prize 2018, Mosman Art Prize 2015, and twice winner of the People’s Choice Warringah Art Prize (Northern Beaches Art Prize). She has held solo shows at HAKE House of Art, Art2muse Gallery and Sydney Road Gallery. Tye’s work is held in collections across the world and is often used by interior designers for styling.
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Angus Martin
I explore emotions through colour, form, and symbolism, creating paintings that tell stories and carry hidden messages. Each piece is a meditation, guiding viewers to look beyond the surface and discover personal meaning. Inspired by music, poetry, and quotes, my work invites reflection and connection with the soul. For me, art acts as a visual anchor, providing a sense of familiarity and reassurance. It's not just about the colour and strokes; it's about creating a connection that goes beyond the surface, becoming a meaningful part of the viewer's journey. South Australian Arts Excellence Award Photo: Jorge Rivera
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Ben Waters
Ben Waters lives in Avalon Beach. He is a painter and is represented by Michael Reid, Northern Beaches Gallery. He paints landscapes inspired by Pittwater and the Northern Beaches, focusing on observation, memory and imagination. He paints predominantly in acrylic on board.
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Bethany Lawrence
Bethany is a self-taught Australian artist creating colourful, contemporary works inspired by everyday moments, wildlife and the humour found in ordinary moments. Her paintings celebrate personality over performance, often capturing quiet scenes with a playful twist.
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Charmaine Davis
Charmaine Davis is a proud Gumbaynggir and Bundjalung artist based in Ipswich. Her landscape paintings are deeply connected to culture, homelands, and family. Through her work, she explores the enduring relationship between people and place. Painting the beauty, memory and atmosphere of the land and how places shape identity and belonging. Her artworks serve as visual portals that invite viewers to engage with her cultural vision and artistic practice. A distinctive aspect of her practice is the repurposing of textile materials, including netted curtains and produce bags which she transforms into intricate stencils used within her paintings. Key Awards 2026 – Finalist Gosford Art Prize, Finalist Alice Prize - NT 2025 - Queensland Regional Art Awards – Winner – Flying Arts First Nations Art Award Artworks acquired by City of Sydney, Ipswich Art Gallery & Grafton Regional Gallery.
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Clare Lewis
Clare Lewis is originally from England. She studied photography at Westminster, London before moving in to her oil painting practice, focusing mainly on landscape and still life. Clare’s time is shared between Sydney and her off grid property on bushland down south. Her landscape works are an emotional response to immersing herself in the stunning natural bushland surrounding her property on the land of the Gundungarra and Dharawal people known as the Southern Highlands. Clare has been a finalist in The Doyles Art Award, Little Things Art Prize, Hunters Hill Art Prize, NEAP ACB Selects and WWAS 9x5 Landscape prize. She is represented by Project Gallery, Woollahra. She has contributed work to raise funds at The Unbound Art Shows, Incognito Art Shows, U-GO and TGS Unwrapped.
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Danielle Nash
Danielle Nash | There You Are Studio | Artist & Natural History Illustrator Danielle Nash is an Avalon-based artist and natural history illustrator whose practice, There You Are Studio, sits at the intersection of art and science. Working primarily in watercolour, gouache and graphite, Danielle draws inspiration from the rich tradition of scientific illustration, when artists played an essential role in documenting, understanding and revealing the natural world. Combining scientific accuracy with expressive, painterly techniques, she collaborates with scientists and researchers to document and illustrate species, contributing to the discovery and understanding of Australia's extraordinary biodiversity. She is currently working on The ABC of Australian Bees, an illustrated book celebrating the remarkable diversity of Australia's native bees. Her creative practice also extends into music, culture and the arts. As resident artist for acclaimed Australian musician Katie Noonan, and through collaborations with musicians, political figures and other creatives, Danielle enjoys exploring the connections between different forms of artistic expression. The name There You Are Studio is a quiet acknowledgement of Danielle's own journey as an artist. After years of feeling the pull of what contemporary art ought to look like, she found a greater sense of freedom in letting those expectations go and returning to what had always fascinated her: the natural world, scientific discovery and the simple pleasure of making things by hand. Rather than trying to define her work within a particular movement, Danielle allows curiosity to lead, embracing the space between scientific precision and artistic expression. At its heart, her work is simply an invitation to look a little closer. In a world that moves so quickly, where nature is so often relegated to the background of our lives, she hopes to encourage a moment of stillness, curiosity and wonder, reminding us that the extraordinary has been quietly there all along.
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Eva Frengstad
I am a Norwegian-born, Avalon-based artist working intuitively with colour, texture and mark-making. My practice is inspired by the ocean, nature, music, meditation and mindfulness, as well as words, lyrics, poetry and quotes that evoke something within me. I paint from feeling rather than a fixed idea, allowing each work to unfold through layers, movement and instinct. I am drawn to the space between chaos and calm, control and surrender, and to translating emotions that are sometimes beyond words into something visual. My work is ultimately about connection: to ourselves, to nature, to one another and to the present moment. I paint what I feel, what moves me, and what I cannot always put into words.
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Halee
Halee is a contemporary artist whose intuitive, process-led paintings explore the raw beauty and emotion found within landscapes, light, colour and texture. Working with earthy tones, deep shadows and rich layers, she incorporates natural materials such as sand, charcoal and ground pumice stone from Avalon beach, creating a tactile and physical quality within her work. Her compositions evolve organically rather than being carefully planned, allowing the painting to guide the process. There is a primal feeling within her work, where water, earth, sky, body and emotion seem to merge. Through expressive mark-making, layered textures and atmospheric colour, Halee creates moody landscapes that explore our instinctive connection to the natural world.
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Jeanette Milne
I’m a Sydney based artist with family in Avalon and Alexandria. In 2015 I was around 60 when I started face to face lessons with master watercolourist John Haycraft, followed by numerous watercolour workshops with Rob Candy and Malcolm Carver. I work almost exclusively in watercolours. They astonish me, and can move me in a way no other medium can. I love the way their translucence allows light to flow through them and with them. In 2019 I entered my first art society exhibition and won an award. Since then my watercolour journey has grown in every aspect. In 2024 I was part of a small group of friends who put on a highly successful exhibition ‘We came, we saw, we painted’. I belong to Oatley 101 Society of Artists, and Drummoyne Art Society. My studio is usually the outdoors, the natural landscape, anywhere. Beautiful spaces where there’s a stillness and a feeling of gentle happiness. I try to convey that in every painting, every wash. Awards Oatley 101 Society of Artists 2026 ‘The Countryside’ - 2nd Prize for Watercolours, Highly Commended Drummoyne Art Society 2026 ‘Hazy Horizon’ (Watercolour) - Very Highly Commended 2024 ‘Blue Tides and Sunshine’ (Watercolour) - Highly Commended 2022 ‘Barrenjoey Headland’ (Pencil and wash)- Highly Commended 2022 ‘Avalon Beach’ (Watercolour) - Commended 2019 ‘Early Morning on Cockatoo Island’ (Pencil) - Commended
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Jo White
Jo White is a painter and sculptor who lives and works in regional NSW. Her work captures the essence of Australian life through a lens that is both nostalgic and refreshingly modern. Her work is materially innovative and visually versatile. She exhibits regularly with Michael Reid Galleries. Finalist in 2026 Paddington Art Prize, 2026 Calleen Art Award, 2026 Fisher's Ghost Art Prize
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Leanne Thomas
Leanne Thomas is a Sydney based artist known for her floral oil paintings. Previously an art director in the advertising world, Leanne's practice grew from a desire to express her love of nature, beauty and classical art. Leanne studied for three years at a studio school learning techniques and principles of the masters. She has been painting full time for 25 years.
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Linda Kruger
Linda is an Australian artist with a background making films for museum exhibitions. She now works as a painter, mostly of still life, but also anything else that takes her fancy. She has had two solo exhibitions and has included work in a number of group shows and prizes.
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Lydia R Hicks
b.1981 | Lives and works on Guringai Country, Avalon Beach, Sydney, Australia Lydia Hicks is an Australian artist with a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Fine Arts) from the University of Southern Queensland. Beginning her career as a sculptural textile artist in the early 2000s, she later took an extended break to pursue a career in Special Needs Education and raise her family before returning to painting full-time. Her work explores the relationship between built structures and the natural world, particularly Sydney’s ocean pools and harbour baths. Through clean lines, simplified forms and carefully balanced colour palettes, her paintings evoke nostalgia, stillness and memory. Hicks is a Resident Artist at Art Gallery on Avalon Beach and is represented by The Toowoomba Gallery. Recent exhibitions include at The Palms Pavilion Gallery (2025) and solo exhibition POOLS: Nostalgic Seascape at Art Gallery on Darling (2026). She has also been a finalist in numerous art prizes, including The Next Big Thing and the Lethbridge Landscape Prize.
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Martine Emdur
Martine Emdur is an award-winning Australian contemporary artist whose evocative paintings have earned recognition across some of the country’s best-known art competitions. Represented by Arthouse Gallery, Martine is a two-time Archibald Prize finalist in 2001 and 2003. She was also selected for the Salon des Refusés at the SH Ervin Gallery in 2000, and has been a finalist in the Portia Geach Memorial Award and the Mosman Art Prize. Her accolades include winning the King’s School Art Prize in 2002 and receiving multiple People’s Choice awards, reflecting the enduring appeal of her work to both the art community and the public. Working in fine layers of oil, Emdur paints the ocean as a place of depth, movement and quiet contemplation. Luminous rays of light, rich blues and greens, and figures suspended beneath the water’s surface invite viewers into a world of stillness and connection with nature. She has held more than 30 solo exhibitions since 1997 and exhibited widely across Australia and overseas, including in Hong Kong and the United States. Martine also has a wonderful selection of limited-edition prints also available through her website. If you are interested, use the discount code BAW to receive FREE SHIPPING on any order. Browse the collection here: https://www.martine-emdur.com/collections/limited-edition-prints
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Morgan Shimeld
The work of Blue Mountains based sculptor, Morgan Shimeld, is primarily concerned with the complex arrangement of abstracted minimalist forms. He works intuitively in a creative and meditative process, striving to find a natural sense of strength and balance in his work. His sculptures, characterised by attention to structure and form, hold a powerful presence while maintaining a subtle quality of understated elegance. Shimeld’s work, incorporates cast, welded and fabricated bronze and steel, his work is highly technical and precisely finished. The artist’s aim is to draw the viewer in, creating a relationship between the spectator and the space in between. His practice is informed by the art movements of Minimalism, Formalism and Geometric Abstraction.
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Pepita Grace
An ocean swimmer, surfer, surf lifesaver and devoted early riser, Pepita’s happiest mornings begin the same way: bare feet in the sand, coffee in hand, watching the sun come up over the water with friends. The light changes every few seconds, and those fleeting moments bring her so much joy that she has always wanted to hold on to them, and share them. After more than 25 years as a graphic designer for surf, skate, snow, music and fashion magazines, and most recently at Studio Oi in Avalon, Pepita now turns that lifetime of looking closely to her own art. Salt + Light is born from the Northern Beaches she calls home: intimate studies of water, light and time, made from within the water, in the first light of morning. It is the ocean as only someone who deeply loves it could show you.
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Phil Meatchem
Phil Meatchem is a Sydney-born artist whose career spans painting, illustration and a 40-year career directing animation and live action. He became a full-time artist in 2017 and was an Archibald Prize finalist that year. His recent honours include winning the 2025 Bald Archy Prize for Despicable Ploy and the 2019 Fab Fakes competition. A regular finalist in art prizes, he is also known for paintings that draw on Australian life, surfing and popular culture.
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Reg Mombassa
Reg Mombassa, born Christopher O’Doherty, is a New Zealand-born Australian artist and musician, best known as a founding member of Mental As Anything and for his distinctive work with Mambo. His paintings, drawings and prints combine Australian landscapes and suburban imagery with a wry, often surreal sense of humour. Mombassa has exhibited widely in Australia and internationally, and his work is held in major collections including the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the British Museum. He was made a Fellow of the National Art School in 2014. This is Reg's second year participating in the Barrenjoey Artwalk. We are thrilled to again have him onboard.
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Rita Kluge
Rita is a local underwater photographer capturing the fragile beauty of marine life through freediving in some of the world’s most remote oceans. Her award-winning imagery reveals the ocean’s grace and vulnerability, inspiring reflection on its delicate balance. Kluge recently released her second book, SACRED BEASTS, with 10% of proceeds supporting Humane World for Animals Australia in her ongoing dedication to protecting wildlife and the natural world.
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Sally Mayman
Sally Mayman is an artist, commercial photographer, and educator driven by a lifelong passion for photography. She exhibits regularly, with personal work exploring emotional, spiritual, and physical connections to the natural world and their relationship to belonging. Through workshops, she shares her knowledge with students across Australia and is Artist in Residence at Barrenjoey High School and Youth Off The Streets. In 2023, she was honoured as Pittwater Woman of the Year for her work with young people. Her collaboration with painter Dale Kentwell, “Saltwater Country,” was acquired by the State Library of Western Australia. Sally recently completed a master’s at UNSW and now facilitates student connection experiences on Country with First Nations communities. Soliphilia is the solidarity needed between all people to take responsibility forthe protection of loved places as well as returning damaged environments back to places that create solace ( Albrecht 2020)
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Sally Rasmussen
I make sculptural fibre works using natural fibres and reclaimed copper wire. I live and work on Ngunnawal Country in Yass, New South Wales, and my practice is shaped by the places that have held me: the land I live on now, the coastal country of my childhood, and the relationships that connect people to place. My background includes a Bachelor of Arts in textiles from the Australian National University and an Advanced Diploma in Transpersonal Art Therapy. Both continue to inform the way I think about materials, and emotional experience. I am interested in how making can hold room for a personal resonance. Since 2023, I have been a featured stockroom artist at Tyger Gallery in Yass. My work has been shown by Tyger at Affordable Art Fairs in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, as well as in group shows. In December 2026, I will present a duo exhibition with Sara Phemister at Belco Arts in Canberra. My hands are always trying to translate landscape into tactile form. Materials matter deeply in my work. I use fibres from sustainable and reclaimed sources. These are stitched, knitted and woven around copper wire reclaimed from discarded electrical cable. The copper has become a signature material in my practice. It gives the fibre structure space. That space is important. When the work sits forward from the wall, it begins to cast shadows. These shadows shift as the light changes, so the piece is never completely still. The fibre, the copper, the wall and the light all become part of the work. For me, the shadows are not secondary. They are integral to the piece. The light and the dark make it whole.
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Scarlet Ottowa
Scarlet Ottowa is a local abstract landscape artist whose work explores the balance between abstraction and reality. Drawing inspiration from her local surroundings, she uses oil paints and a layered technique to create pieces that blend intricate detail with subtle suggestion. Her work invites viewers to engage with the interplay of texture, form and colour, offering a dynamic view of the world around us. Scarlet is a resident artist at Art Gallery on Avalon Beach, a member of the Pittwater Artists Trail, a finalist in art prizes and her work is held in both local and international collections.
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Sophie Taggart
Sophie Taggart is a contemporary Australian artist whose work explores how what surrounds us shapes the way we think and feel. Her paintings begin with words written directly onto the canvas and build through a layering of colour. Each artwork invites us to consciously choose the thoughts we return to - and consider how those thoughts shape the way we experience our lives. Recently Commissioned by Wollongong High School of the Performing arts to complete a series of five abstract works and four favourite place sketches for their main hallway and office spaces.
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Susan Shortridge
My paintings are a “visual diary” of my observations. I record images, objects, and settings that present themselves spontaneously. This lens of creativity has allowed me to view the everyday with a renewed sense of joy. Although the nature of my paintings tends to be quiet and contemplative, I feel the expressiveness of the paint gives the subject matter a certain energy and vitality. 2022 Finalist Paddington Art Prize 2022 Finalist Meroogal Women’s Art Prize 2022 Finalist, Little Things Art Prize, Saint Cloche Gallery (Paddington) 2021 Finalist and recipient of the Highly Commended Award in the Wall Works Category, Little Things Art Prize, Saint Cloche Gallery (Paddington). 2017 Finalist in the Eutick Memorial Still Life Award (EMSLA).
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Tan Arlidge
Tan Arlidge (b. 1987, Brisbane, Australia) is a sculptor living and working on Gadigal land in Bondi Beach, Sydney. Working primarily with timber, steel and polymer, Arlidge creates works that evoke a sense of movement and often hint at forms found in nature. An interplay of femininity and masculinity runs through her practice, expressed in her choice of materials and shapes.
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Tegan Franks
Tegan Franks is a Northern Beaches–based artist whose practice is deeply informed by her coastal surroundings and international travels. With a lifelong passion for creativity, she approaches her work with a distinctive sensitivity to atmosphere, emotion, and place. Tegan’s paintings capture the essence of summertime by the sea, expressed through an evocative, pared-back style. By intentionally stripping away detail, she creates nuanced, atmospheric works that invite viewers to connect with the calm, nostalgia, and serenity of beachside living. Based in Newport, where she lives with her husband and four young children, Tegan’s work has found homes across Australia and abroad. Her pieces have been featured in publications including Real Living, Frankie, Art Edit, and Hunting for George. Her art also appears on the walls of the iconic, newly renovated Bondi Icebergs in Sydney.
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Vicki Ratcliff
Vicki is a watercolour and oil painter living in Mona Vale. Inspired by her love of swimming in her local ocean pool, she is particularly drawn to paint the women who share each morning with her. Vicki also works on a miniature scale and has won numerous awards for her intricate small works. Achievements: Vicki was a finalist in the Ravenswood Art Prize in 2023, and winner of the Lloyd Rees Prize Lane Cove Art Society in 2021. She has had a solo show ‘Mermaids’ at Michael Reid Northern Beaches in 2022 and group show ‘A Place in the Sun’ 2023. Winner other media category and highly commended in oil category Australian Society of Miniature Art 2024 Her work can be found at Art Gallery Avalon Beach and The Moree Gallery.
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Vivien Walsh
Vivien Walsh is a watercolour artist, illustrator and professional food stylist based on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. Her paintings are a playful mix of whimsy and precision, inspired by her love of colour, pattern and her extensive collection of beautiful plateware. Her food styling informs her sense of composition and detail, and the two meet on the plate in her work. Her illustration work has appeared in Australian Gourmet Traveller, delicious. Magazine, Better Homes & Gardens magazine and several cookbooks.
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