Meet Our Artists
Discover the talented artists showcasing their work at Barrenjoey Artwalk 2025
Amanda Tye
Amanda Tye is inspired by the natural world, devoid of human presence as an opportunity to escape. By sectioning the view into shapes, Tye depicts an emotional yet fragmented response to her surroundings exploring her love of photography and light.
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Anna Lohe
Anna Lohe is an Australian contemporary artist from Avalon. Her work explores the intricate relationship between landscapes, botanical and architectural elements, representing these in an expressionist form. Her artworks reflect her passion for capturing the beauty of flowers, plants and colour in an evocative and joyful manner. She believes her art can feed the soul of a home and encourages viewers to observe the world with added curiosity. Anna has exhibited in Sydney, Melbourne and Ibiza and her work can be found in collections in New York, Barcelona, London and throughout a resort in the Maldives.
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Anya Pesce
Anya Pesce is a Sydney-based contemporary artist represented by .M Contemporary Gallery, Sydney, and Penny Contemporary, Tasmania. She holds an MFA from the National Art School, Sydney (2017). Pesce has exhibited extensively both in Australia and internationally, with solo exhibitions including Abstract Fetish (.M Contemporary, 2025), Fold Fetish (MyMicrogallery, Milan, 2024), and Surface Fetish (.M Contemporary, 2023). She has been a regular exhibitor at Sydney Contemporary Art Fair since 2020 and has shown at notable venues including 67 York Street Gallery (London), the Florence Biennale (Italy), and Brick Lane Gallery (London). Her work is held in the Newcastle University Art Gallery collection and numerous private collections nationally and internationally. Pesce's practice has been featured in publications including Belle, Vogue Living Australia, and The Layered Interior by Greg Natale (Rizzoli, 2022).
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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. He was recently a finalist in the Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Prize at Manly Regional Gallery.
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Caressa Gonsalves
Caressa Gonsalves is a ceramic artist raised on the northern beaches of Palm Beach, Australia. Drawing inspiration from her coastal upbringing and childhood memories, she crafts hand-made vessels vases, plates, and more that blend raw emotion with natural textures. Her work reflects a healing journey through grief and loss, channeling those waves of feeling into each piece, celebrating imperfection and organic form.
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Danielle Nash
Danielle is a natural history illustrator and botanical artist living and working in Newport on Sydney's Northern Beaches. She is Creative Director of ‘There You Are’ fine art studio, established in 2019 to showcase her art and creative offerings. Drawing inspiration from her natural surroundings and the inherent unique beauty of native species, she specialises in watercolour painting. Her work draws attention to the small and often overlooked members of our fragile ecosystem.
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Gerry Colley
Gerry ‘Rey’ Colley is a Sydney based portrait and figurative sculptor who works primarily in clay, plaster and bronze. His work, both commissioned and personal, embodies individuality, capturing a range of unique emotions and expressions in intricate detail.
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Halee- Halee Image Artist
For twenty years, I’ve followed a joyful, instinctive path through painting—letting each piece unfold naturally, without plans or rules. My process is playful and free, guided by emotion and imagination. I never quite know where a painting will take me, and that’s the magic.
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Ingrid Kwong
Originally trained as a graphic and book designer, Ingrid is fulfilling her passion for painting through her ‘little’ landscapes on reclaimed wood and timber. Spending time at her Mackerel Beach shack and in the surrounding bays and bush of Pittwater and the national park, she is constantly inspired to capture the feeling of the landscape, the ever-changing light and movement in the sea and sky. She creates these paintings to capture lasting memories and connect us with nature. Recycling them in this way feels as though she is giving them back to nature and the sea, aswell as being able to pass them on in an environmentally friendly way.
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Jacob Pedrana
If ever an artist was a signifier of the times, surely it would be Jake Pedrana. And his colourful, flamboyant works with throw away lines taken from things as diverse as movies to Marlboro cigarettes hint at something deeper and more complex. The neo-punk cowboys in macho poses while wearing chaps/chapstik? - the rouged cheeks and the lip glossed mouths sit perfectly well in our gender fluid times. Jakes work isn’t akin to a religious experience, but what it does is challenge what we know and like about art. It’s pretty in a dirty way. With a high five to the ghost of Basquiat and a nod to Lister’s earlier work, Jake has rewritten the visual vernacular of neo-expressionism in Australian art. It’s exciting, it’s new and it’s being made in Bungan. It’s akin to the caged music scene in The Blues Brothers – Jake at the helm like his namesake (Belushi) while glasses fly and mayhem falls around him. Born in Noosa, residing in Bungan and living the great Australian dream, Jake is a renaissance man doing his best to maintain that maverick spirit (once coined larrikin) which is sorely missed in contemporary Australia. His trajectory only has one direction, and I’m just glad to say I knew him when… Written by Mitchell English (Director, Arcadia Street Gallery)
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Jacqui Turner
Jacqui Turner is an Avalon local and a documentary photographer, both professionally under her brand, Running Under the Sprinkler, and in her own creative works. Her artistic body of work is primarily collected in her travels, documenting what she sees with either her film camera, or her favourite tilt-shift lens and in doing so, always managing to impart a softness to what she views, intentionally stepping away from the sharp edges and clarity that we have become accustomed to seeing in digital photography.Jacqui Turner is a professional photographer working in the industry for over 30 years. She covers all genres of photography - documentary, portrait, wedding, birth, family, as well as underwater, product, advertising, fashion, fine art, travel and landscape. Her work has been published across multiple magazines and newspapers, in books, on album covers, posters and a billboard.
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Jennifer Rosnell
Jennifer Rosnell is local artist whose oil painting practice blends light, colour and coastal nostalgia. A graduate of the College of Fine Arts UNSW, she works across figurative scenes, ferries and moments of everyday coastal life. Her work has been recognised in numerous prizes such as the Portia Geach Memorial Award and the Mosman Art Prize, and featured in publications including Home Beautiful and Galah magazine. She is represented by Olsen Gallery with an upcoming solo exhibition in June 2026.
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Jessica Watts
Jessica received a Bachelor of Design with Hons & the University Medal from the University of Technology Sydney before a long career working as a multi-award winning advertising art director, including working for a decade in New York. She has been a full time artist since 2010. In 2017 she co-founded Sydney Road Gallery. That same year she teamed up with Japanese art dealer Rocky Degawa and together they have staged many successful solo shows at the prestigious Bunkamura Gallery in Tokyo. Watts has exhibited extensively in Australia and abroad. She currently works from her loft studio in Dee Why with the assistance of Kevin, her wonky blue-eyed dog.
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Leah Ramage
Leah Ramage is a self taught watercolour artist and through her distinct style she aims to capture moments and places, highlighting their simple beauties, while using art as an advocate to educate people on animal and environmental sustainability. Leah’s works push the boundaries of watercolour, magically capturing the transparency of water and fleeting moments. Australian culture is explored through coastal landscapes, ocean rock pools and moments of people captured doing everyday life. Through vibrant, ocean inspired works, Leah aims to inspire a deeper connection to the natural world while educating viewers about the importance of protecting it.
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Leigh Binskin
Leigh Binskin is a mixed media artist whose work is deeply influenced by her Scottish heritage and her chosen life on the Northern Beaches, Australia. Leigh’s art reflects a strong connection to everyday items, the land and the layered stories and memories they hold. Her distinctive style involves the layering historic photographs, handwritten notes, and her own intricate sketches with transparent acrylic glazes. These elements act like archaeological layers—revealing fragments of lives lived, places loved, and moments remembered. Leigh's work was most recently exhibited at Sydney Road Gallery, Balgowlah and she was a finalist in this year's Waverley Woollahra Landscape Art Prize. Leigh has also featured as the cover artist for The Tawny Frogmouth.
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Linda Kruger
Linda’s art practice has included traditional printmaking, digital design, and in more recent years painting. Her work has appeared in group exhibitions and prize exhibitions in Australia and overseas, and she held her first solo show of paintings, “Vessel” at the Tweed Regional Gallery in 2022. Later that year Linda was selected for the National Emerging Art Prize “ACB Selects” exhibition. She had her second solo exhibition with Michael Reid Northern Beaches in Sydney. Linda is a graduate of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, and holds a Masters in Applied History (Museum Studies) from the University of Technology Sydney. She’s a self taught painter.
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Lydia R Hicks
Lydia Hicks b.1981 | Lives and works on Guringai Country, Avalon Beach, Sydney, Australia Lydia Hicks is an Australian artist who holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Fine Arts) from the University of Southern Queensland. Her creative career began in the early 2000s as a sculptural textile artist. After several years exhibiting her textile-based works, she took an extended break from art to focus on a successful career in Special Needs Education in both England and Australia. During that time, she also raised her family and eventually settled in Avalon, where she returned to painting full-time. Since resuming her practice, Hicks has exhibited across New South Wales and Queensland and has been selected as a finalist in multiple national art prizes, including The Next Big Thing (2025) and the Lethbridge Landscape Prize (2024).
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Nikki Quarry
"Nikki works as a full-time artist from her studio/gallery “Nikki’s Art Space”, in the heart of Avalon. She draws on images of far away places that inspired her during many years of travel. Her latest series of Sydney headlands and Australian animals are very restrained, allowing the large empty white space around them to draw the viewer into the meticulous fine detail and they suffuse a modern sophisticated charm into the monochromatic designs. Our imagination is relied upon to fill in the missing details, making the image more intimate to the viewer. Nikki currently uses mainly traditional methods of oil on canvas but loves to create in all forms of mediums including watercolor, pastel and charcoal."
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Phil Meatchem
"Full time artists from 2017. Archibald Prize Finalists 2017. Gosford Art Prize Commended and peoples Choice 2018-2019 as well as a regular finalist. FAB Fakes winner 2019. Bald Archie prize Winner 2025. "
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Reg Mombassa
Christopher O'Doherty aka Reg Mombassa is a New Zealand born Australian musician and artist. He is known for his membership in bands Mental as Anything, Dog Trumpet and The Pinks. Reg has written, recorded, and toured with these bands. The Mentals released a total of 9 studio albums and Dog Trumpet has released 7 albums to date. Mental as Anything won an ARIA award in 1996 for Best Cover Art featuring Reg's artwork on their Liar, Liar Pants on Fire album, and in 2009 they were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame. He worked with Mambo Graphics designing t-shirts and posters since 1986 and exhibited paintings, drawings and prints at Watters Gallery from 1975 to 2018. In 2014 Reg was made a Fellow of the National Art School in Sydney. He is now represented by Diane Larter at Rogue Pop-Up Gallery. His diverse range of projects also includes taking part in solo and group art shows in Australia, New Zealand, Italy, USA, France, Britain, China and Thailand. He has had survey shows at The SH Ervin Gallery in 2007, the Manly Gallery and Museum in 2018 (with his brother Peter O' Doherty) and Ambush Gallery ANU Canberra 2019. Reg designed several props for the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, and in 2007 he was commissioned by Australia Post to design the "Big Things" stamp series. In 2008, as part of the Royal Australian Mint's Great Australian Artist series, a set of coins featuring Reg's iconic Kangaroo design were issued. His art appeared on another Royal Australia Mint coin in 2013 commemorating Sydney's New Year's Eve celebrations, for which he was also the official Creative Ambassador, designing a series of graphics for the event. Reg has talked and showed his work with Semi Permanent in Sydney and Brisbane in 2011, Wellington NZ in 2013 and with Ted X in 2020 in Sydney. A biography 'The Life and Times of Reg Mombassa was written by Murray Waldren and published by Harper Collins in 2009. 'The Landscapes of Reg Mombassa was published by P.Q.Blackwell in 2016. His art is included in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Australia, National Portrait Gallery, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Powerhouse Museum, Melbourne Museum, National Art School, Macquarie University Gallery, University of Sydney Union, The British Museum, and many other significant private and institutional collections.
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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 continues to enjoy a life long passion for photography, working as an artist, commercial photographer and educator. Sally exhibits regularly, her personal work exploring emotional, spiritual and physical connections with the natural world and how these are interwoven with our sense of belonging. Through workshops Sally loves sharing her knowledge and skills with students throughout Australia, she is the Artist in Residence at Barrenjoey High School and Youth Off The Streets. In 2023 she was acknowledged asthe Pittwater Women of the Year for her work with young people. With painter Dale Kentwell their body of work, “Saltwater Country” wasbought by the State Library of Western Australia. Sally is currently facilitating connection experiences for students on Country with First Nations communities.
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Scarlet Ottowa
Scarlet Ottowa is contemporary abstract and abstract landscape Avalon based artist. She is a resident artist at Art Gallery on Avalon Beach and her art is collected both locally and world wide. Her work is inspired by the local area in which she grew up and is expressed through her interpretation of place, memory, emotion and the environment.
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Sophie Nolan
Sophie Nolan is a ceramicist based on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. By using traditional hand building techniques, Sophie creates one-of-a-kind curvy, sensual vases, each shape holding its own presence and personality. Sophie’s background in graphic design has given her a keen eye for shapes, balance and form. What began as a side line passion swiftly became her main focus, taking on commissions, supplying high end interior stores, art concept stores and stylists, being featured in designed spaces, fashion styled stories and publications. Sophie has exhibited her work at galleries including St Cloche, Henry Jones Gallery and Michael Reid. The celebration of the human form, focusing on the beauty of our unique imperfections, curves, nuances and individualism is a constant theme running through her work. Sophie begins with a characteristic in mind, sketches out the shape, unique in angles and curves, then slowly moulds the desired form and allows the essence to emerge.
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Sophie Taggart
Sophie Taggart is a South Coast-based artist whose vibrant layered abstract works are known for their warmth, colour and quiet emotional presence. Her practice blends painterly expression with handwritten reflections, creating artworks infused with intention and energy. Guided by an intereset in natural healing modalities and the subtle influence of words, Sophie's canvases evoke both stillness and vitality. Whether through large-scale commissions, intimate drawings, or collaborative projects with designers and spaces, her works carry the same aim: to connect, calm, inspire and empower.
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Suzy O’Rourke
Suzy O’Rourke is a painter and ceramicist based on Sydney’s Northern Beaches. With a background in millinery and interior design, Suzy’s creative practice explores the intersection of nature, form and simplicity, expressed through both handcrafted ceramics and original artworks. Suzy was selected by curator Amber Creswell Bell for the National Emerging Art Prize’s annual offshoot, ACB Selects and has enjoyed her first exhibition “The Shape of US” at Michael Reid Northern Beaches Gallery in Newport.
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Thanh Tam Cao
2025 FINALIST - Lethbridge Small Scale, Lane Cove Art Prize, Interior Art Prize, National Emerging Art Prize, Wollongong Art Prize, Bundanon artist in residence.
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Vicki Ratcliff
Vicki is a watercolour and oil painter living on the Northern Beaches. 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. She has recently won The Coleman award and a Highly commended in oils prizes at the National Miniature awards 2025. 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.
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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 background in food styling informs her sense of composition and detail, while the creativity of painting allows her to explore the joy in the imaginative and the illogical. Vivien’s art and illustration work has appeared in Australian Gourmet Traveller, delicious. magazine, and in several cookbooks.
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Vynka Hallam
My works celebrate a quality which exaggerates colour and perspectives, intentionally exposing brush marks and paint drips to show signs of the hand made and contribute to the visual environment of my works. I also believe there is an honesty in the imperfect.
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Wendy Sharpe
Wendy Sharpe AM, was a student at Barrenjoey High School. She is one of Australia’s most acclaimed and awarded artists, she lives and works in Sydney and Paris. She has won an extensive list of prizes, residencies and scholarships; These include: winning the Archibald Prize, the Sulman Prize, the Portia Geach Memorial Award, the Calleen Art Prize, the Adelaide Perry Art Prize, the Gold Award and more. She has been awarded many international residencies, from places as diverse as Antarctica and Egypt. She has also had many artists’ residencies with the Australian Ballet, Opera Australia, Circus Oz and the State Library of NSW. Sharpe was the first woman since WWII commissioned by the Australian War Memorial as an Australian Official War Artist. She has worked a lot with charities such as the Asylum Seekers Centre Sydney, Catherine Hamlin Fistula Foundation, the Social Outfit and Lou's place Womens Refuge. Sharpe has held over 70 solo exhibitions around Australia and internationally.
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