Creative Studios

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The Creative Studios at the Caboolture Hub provide local artists and creative industry professionals access to low-cost studio space to develop their creative practice.

The Creative Studios aim to support the growth and development of arts and culture within the Moreton Bay Region. Whilst also showcasing the region’s diverse creative community.

Four studios are available, giving local creative practitioners a studio to work on a project.

Studios are available for up to six months at a low cost of $58.00 per month, including overhead costs such as electricity, water and Wi-Fi.

Successful applicants will also have access to networking opportunities to support the development of their creative practice.

Expressions of interest have closed but will reopen in April 2024 for residencies from July to December 2024.

For more information, email the Cultural Activation team at cultural.activation@moretonbay.qld.gov.au.

Meet the studio residents

Serinah Williams

Serinah Williams is a Yiman artist living on Gubbi Gubbi land, studying a Bachelor of Contemporary Australian Indigenous Art at the Queensland College of Art and Design. She is focused on representing her identity as a pansexual, Aboriginal woman through many mediums and aims to create work others can relate to while creating pieces that are healing for herself.

Williams experiments with many mediums. Recently she has been exploring analogue photography as truth-telling, shedding light on the negative effects of colonialism. In an attempt to decolonise her life, she has been learning weaving and incorporating recycled materials into this practice.

During her residency, Serinah plans to continue working on decolonising her mindset by connecting back to weaving and using analogue photography as a form of truth-telling. She will continue to create photographic and painterly works around her identity as a pansexual, Aboriginal woman, and her experience with societal expectations relating to her identity.

She aims to have a new body of work to show and develop her practice. She is hoping to share the knowledge of weaving with Mob in the Moreton Bay area and organise workshops and weaving circles later to share cultural knowledge within Community.

Studio days and hours

  • Thursday: 12:00 PM - 6:00 PM
  • Saturday: 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM
  • Sunday: 11:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Emma Grey

Emma Gray is a multidisciplinary artist who has been exploring the themes of childhood and play in her works for quite some time.

Unlocking core memories, reliving through the senses, classical art and colour theory have been major starting points for her works.

As she began teaching high school her desire to help and inspire others to see the benefit that art can bring has led her to rethink and explore art making in new and exciting ways.

Emma primarily works with paint, collage, photography, and clay. Her past sculptures and ephemeral works have been playful and energetic. She is inspired by artists who push the boundaries of art, use popular culture to enliven and help us feel something new and powerful.

During her residency at The Hub, Emma will be exploring a new avenue in her practice while carrying out one on one contemporary art classes, group classes for adults and children and therapeutic art exercises.

Studio days and hours

  • Tuesday: 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM
  • Wednesday: 9:00 AM - 3:00 PM
  • Thursday: 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM
  • Friday: 9:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Past residents

July - December 2023

Kylie Harries

Kylie is a multidisciplinary artist influenced by the natural world around her, specifically observed on her farm in Lacey’s Creek.  The comings and goings of the seasons, river and creek systems, animals, birds, mushrooms, fungus, rocks and weeds are all sources of inspiration. Kylie applies her love of the natural world to her art practice, letting it move and guide her through colour, movement, and perspectives. She consciously chooses practices and techniques that minimise waste and have low environmental impacts. Kylie has been regenerating her creativity by exploring new techniques such as cyanotype, monoprinting and environmental sculpture.

Kylie has been exploring her matrilineal history through family relationships and shared histories and pastimes. Through this research she has discovered familial links through the migrant stories of her great great grandparents who arrived in the Moreton Bay region in the 1800s.  She has only been able to uncover snippets of her Great Great Grandmother Maria Kanowski, a woman who reared 14 children and died at 49.  Kylie's residency ‘Egg Stories’ would explore this untold history.

Sarah O’Neill

Sarah O'Neill is a self-taught photographer and emerging artist based in the Moreton Bay Region.

She is a two-time finalist in the Moreton Bay Region Art Prize and also the social media manager and photographer for the volunteer run Redcliffe Art Society.

Sarah has a passion for people, animals and the environment and likes to experiment with different subjects and styles in her photography and mixed media.

During her residency at Caboolture Hub Creative Studios, Sarah will plan and create a body of work for an upcoming exhibition, through portraiture, storytelling and video. She will have an open studio for people in the region to connect and network with. Through community consultation, Sarah will also be doing a call out for Moreton Bay locals who wish to participate in her artworks.

Tammie Maree

Tammie Maree is a self-taught mixed medium artist with a bold, quirky abstract style inspired by feminine form, nature and sacred geometry. Creativity has always been a part of her life, Tammie's current practice is centred in returning to love through playful exploration and trial and error, using mediums like watercolour, clay, words and digital layers to express and weave learned concepts of archetypes, energetics and meditation.

As an ex-social worker and circle holder, Tammie has witnessed the profound impact of storytelling and creative expression, allowing individuals to feel less isolated and more empowered. Tammie is passionate about inspiring individuals to use art to enable their personal and spiritual transformation.

During this residency Tammie will offer a variety of playful experiences alongside her main project entitled UNBOUND, which explores self-love through the lens of awareness and beliefs. Curiously exploring the suppressed or hidden aspects of oneself she aims to deeply weave her personal journey into a collection of poems and art that documents her path of reclaiming through self-discovery.

Emma-Lee McGregor

Emma-Lee grew up in the region with a family history of artists and surrounded by the opportunities of art in the community. Emma-Lee has worked as a teacher aide for Indigenous children and with adults and children with disabilities as a support worker. Whilst creating art with clients, Emma-Lee noticed how incredible art can be for the soul, mental health and to be part of a community. Seeing what it can do, and the value of someone being able to express themselves and tell their story, created Mind Your Mind Art Therapies to help people spiritually connect with their inner selves through art.

During this residency Emma-Lee will run art therapy workshops for children, adults, adults with disabilities and Mindful Mums Groups, all with the goal to better the soul and mental health of participants whilst making connections with others in the community. The outcome of the workshops will see participants sharing their art through a community gallery. On the odd occasion, other small businesses in the community will be welcomed to collaborate on workshops.

January - June 2023

Janet Fletcher

Janet Fletcher’s practice examines and reinterprets idiosyncrasies, myths, landscapes, and vernacular that make Australia so unique to the rest of the world. Working across a variety of disciplines and materials, she creates alternate ‘worlds’ in which her works reside. Sculptures are characterised by painterly textures and often, humorous, or grotesque forms that combine to create unorthodox ‘props’ that are then interacted with in performance. Through tactile engagement with her creations, she considers that the works are imbued with agency – an ability to continue to live, and even ‘think’ after performance, creating their own connections and futures.

During this residency, Janet will explore aspects of popular local urban and youth culture that recur through generations of Australians, and how they may have been shaped by historical perceptions of the ‘hard-working man of the land’ and the ‘lovable larrikin’. Using the juxtaposition of humorous and uncomfortable visual motifs, sculpture, text-based works, and video performance, provide a feminist interpretation of such male-dominated myths. It is hoped that an awareness and reminder of where the female is positioned within Australian history and culture, encourages us to continue to question and respond to certain beliefs and values that make up our collective identity.

Felicia Lloyd

Working in digital and new media, photography, and printmaking, Felicia created and presented a number of community-based arts initiatives and experiences in the Gladstone Region prior to relocating to Bribie Island in 2020.  With professional experience including teaching and workshop facilitation, design, curation and events management, her work has been featured in the Queensland Regional Art Awards, solo and group exhibitions and private and public collections, including the QLD State Library. Felicia has created a number of temporary public artworks in the Gladstone Region and recently for the Moreton Bay Region Art at Large Foreshore Footpaths project.

During this residency, Felicia will create an open printmaking studio to undertake the research and development for a new body of work. Creation of prints, artist books and boxes, altered books, reclaimed objects and artefacts will explore the historical development of Bribie Island in terms of place (physical location, geography, landscape), time (pre and post world war 2) and space (psychological, collective memories). Found objects and imagery from early enterprise and tourism will be utilised to explore the impact of development of the Moreton Bay region on its environment and people . In the last month of the residency the space will be transformed into an “inconvenience store “ where visitors are invited to explore a makeshift souvenir shop.

Shan Michaels

Shan Michaels is an emerging artist living on Jinibara country whose work is informed by her lived experience as a queer woman. She uses textiles to explore themes of identity, inclusion, accessibility, and sustainability. Shan’s practice deliberately disrupts narratives attached to the traditions of sewing, quilting and embroidery with a contemporary aesthetic.

During this residency, Shan will combine textiles and intuition to create a body of work called Think and you miss it. She is focused on unlearning old narratives, both in life and her practice, particularly around releasing attachment to outcome. It is her intention to press pause on her logic brain and let creativity lead this work. To be thoughtful without thinking.

Shan will use repurposed textiles and play with visual contrast and layers of textures to create quilted artefacts. Challenging tradition and releasing perfection through improvisation.

Natalie Lisa Tucker

Born in the Land of the Long White Cloud (Aotearoa), Natalia Lisa Tucker (Lisa) has resided in Australia for the last 36 years. She graduated as a qualified Transpersonal Art Therapist in 2016 and specialises in Chinese brush painting, selling many of her artworks (art2cin2u.com).

She practises spirit work with art and culture to take you to dimensions seeing into yourself. Lisa facilitated the Together Apart art project with local Elder Terry Saleh creating paintings with totem animals. She has run many community groups, school holiday programs and various retreats, including a Cultural retreat in New Zealand.

During this residency, Lisa will be practising her Chinese brush painting and will be offering a variety of classes including women's circles and weaving workshops.

In January, Lisa will be spending time learning constellation work and string geometry. She will also have art available for purchase from her previous workshops held at the Caboolture neighbourhood Centre. Some of these artworks will be from clients that have worked on the Together Apart Project.

July - December 2022

Jennis Ardern

Jennis Ardern is a multidisciplinary artist who embraces creative play and storytelling to promote individual and community empowerment. Jennis draws upon her childhood love of stories such as fairy tales, mythology, and comics. By combining the narratives of popular superhero storytelling, with mindful practices and gestalt therapy, Jennis invites viewers and participants to envision themselves as the hero of their own stories.

Jennis’ collaborative and interactive installations harness co-creation strategies and often invite viewers to physically explore the concepts of wellbeing, resilience, and self-acceptance by participating with or adding to her artworks.

 During the studio residency, Jennis made soft puppets with The Puppetarium to represent emotions.

Jennis says: “I currently create textile artworks on canvas to represent big emotions, ones that feel out of control, as monsters. Then I consider ways that these monsters might be tamed − listened to and responded to in a way that reduces the overwhelm, so that the emotion can be helpful, like a sidekick. This monster artwork is effective but I want to use puppets to represent an emotion at multiple levels: ‘normal’, out of control, and shut-down to add nuance and be more playful.”

Annalisa Aum

Annalisa Aum is a creative reveller, producing a diversity of written and screen works, installations and performance art over the past twenty years.

Following postgraduate studies in Screenwriting at the Australian Film, Television & Radio School, Annalisa worked as a children’s television writer for Network Ten, freelance script assessor and story developer. Her short films have been screened in Australian and international film festivals, group and solo gallery exhibitions, and public art installations.

Annalisa’s work is influenced and driven by compassionate environmentalism, Buddhism, Taoism, feminism, equity and Jungian thought.

During the residency, Annalisa unpacked several interconnected projects: researching and puzzling together a quirky futuristic self-help novel; a blog on parenting against the grain with musings around capitalism and the patriarchy perpetuating the world of trauma; ideas for a gallery exhibition proposal that explores swinging the world back from the extremes of patriarchy towards the Buddhist/Taoist middle way of peace and harmony.

The studio space held a detective’s unpuzzling of a complex case. Writings, rantings, ideas and poetry on the walls. A journey into the madness of the mind, and (hopefully) a safe return home.

Mel Brady

Mel Brady is a painter and installation artist living on Gubbi Gubbi land, working with fabric and paint to create site-specific, immersive installation art and light-hearted craft. Mel’s love of vintage fashion has informed art and craft workshops in galleries and museums in the Moreton Bay Region since 2017. A recent highlight is Expedition, a travelling art experiment in conjunction with the Side Gallery, Brisbane and the New England Regional Art Gallery, Armidale NSW.

Following on from a three-part installation series made in 2020 with an RADF grant, Mel created a series of immersive environments that people can experience and respond to. The overall goal was to spark a sense of wonder and delight in the viewer and charge their everyday lives with the electricity of discovery. Using a variety of media, including cardboard, fabric, paint, lighting and music, she made environments such as:

  • a giant garden 
  • a nest or pillow fort/cloud land for relaxation and imagination
  • a secret club-house/tree-house with games and meetings.

Mel created environments in response to visitor feedback, to make a feedback loop with the local community. Mel facilitated a series of crafting, imagination or meditation workshops and will collaborate with Council to plan artist talks/open studio events.

Ruth Ellington

Ruth Ellington’s creative practice as a multi-disciplinary artist and visual arts teacher demonstrates her passion for creative exploration and adventure; both in life and in her artwork. With a strong personal context, she continually explores new ways to create, incorporating sculptures and installations with fabric, fibres and textured materials, painting, drawing, photography and printmaking.

During the studio residency, Ruth Ellington combined the elements of visual imagery and the written word to weave together stories of her life to create a body of work titled The Tulip Project.

Ruth’s current focus is on extending her craft to writing her memoir and creating a body of work where the artwork intertwines with the written word. Not only will it be a written memoir but a visual one, where the viewer and reader are taken on a journey. Two- and three-dimensional visual artefacts will be created with mixed media, sculpture and photography.

Alongside housing Ruth’s creative project, this studio will allow access to visual art students, fellow artists and the general public to view her works in progress, engage in workshops and interact in a working artist’s studio.

February - June 2022

Jennis Ardern

Jennis Ardern is a multidisciplinary artist known for her colourful landscape paintings and participatory installations. Her artworks are welcoming, using heightened, saturated, bright colours. Her fanciful patchwork paintings evoke memories of child-like wonder by combining actual and remembered places.

Her artwork is spirited and peaceful. She invites viewers to explore their identification with natural landscapes. Her collaborative and interactive installations harness co-creation strategies. She invites viewers to touch or add to the artwork.

During the residency, Jennis extended her existing body of work through experimentation. She developed nature-inspired assemblage using a mix of new, found, and recycled materials. This exploration allowed Jennis to transform her 2D painted landscapes into 3D sculptural artworks.

Community members were part of the creative process by attending drop-in collaborative art sessions. Jennis had hand-cut plenty of coral and fish out of reclaimed Coreflute signage, and visitors to The Hub revitalised this bleached reef, using paint to add colour and texture to the scene.

Jana Daniels

Jana Daniels is a writer, fine artist and student graphic designer. She has worked in the arts sector as an assistant in secondary education and has ambitions to pursue art therapy for people from all walks of life and ages.

Jana believes that the power of creativity is in all of us. She desires to help people tap into that natural energy for guidance, direction and added enjoyment in their lives.

During this studio residency, Jana focused on building her freelance business, Crooked Flaw Creations, which offers illustration and graphic design services, as well as fun and therapeutic creative workshops for the community. Jana has also researched and experimented with drawing illustrations for children's books and graphic novels.

Larysa Fabok

Larysa uses a combination of traditional methods and digital tools in her artwork, such as combining modelling and animation with photography and painted surfaces. Her influences come from nature and playing. She practises art to release the inner child, playing and satisfying her curiosity and interests daily.

Her methods are influenced by The Artist's Way, Carl Jung’s Red Book, and his Active Imagination process, a rigorously defined procedure for channelling creativity. Her story, Play Like a Rite, documents the process of using Active Imagination for health and holistic medicine.

During this studio residency, Larysa used the Active Imagination process to channel the story of a child who grew up too fast, turning their back on all thoughts of playing. It is a story she wishes she had found in a library book when she was a child. The book will be full of soft, glowing, beautiful pictures, hinting at the unnerving horror of the life of an adult child in a dysfunctional family system.

 Larysa experimented with ways of producing this as a storybook. She shared her work-in-progress with the community and facilitated workshops for people to explore their inner voices through pictures to discover their own unique stories.

Anna Turnbull

Anna Turnbull is an artist who works with ceramics, mixed media and textiles. Her work encapsulates elements of the natural environment, drawing from the colours, textures and forms around the region.

Her ceramic works emerge from a receptive walking methodology as a contextual and conceptual mechanism for the production of contemporary artworks. She describes herself as a walking artist concerned with coming to know a place through experience and sensory perceptions of Moreton Bay.

 During this studio residency, Anna continued working on her latest series of contemporary ceramics inspired by a wayfaring methodology of walking around the foreshores of Deception Bay, Nudgee Beach and Redcliffe. She had her ceramic wheel in the studio and interested visitors to The Hub were able to watch her work.

Anna's studio space provided a constantly changing display of her current developing body of work. During April and May 2022, Anna presented an exhibition of her ceramics, Desire Paths: Reflective Walking in Deception Bay, at The Hub Gallery.