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Jayne Papalia, co-owner of Sugar House Studios and Gallery, is a Northern Beaches ceramic artist and the creative force behind The Sunshine Collective Australia. Her work is deeply rooted in the rugged beauty of the Australian coastline, drawing from the textures, colours, and rhythms of the sea, sand, and stone. Through hand-built and wheel-thrown forms, Jayne translates the natural environment into tactile, functional art that embodies calm, connection, and place.

Working from her Brookvale-based studio, Jayne creates pieces that feel both raw and refined — sculptural surfaces, organic silhouettes, and soft coastal glazes that echo the shifting shoreline. Her practice is guided by a desire to capture the emotional quality of the landscape: its wildness, its stillness, and its ability to ground and restore.

Jayne has been recognised as a Finalist in the 2023 and 2024 Northern Beaches Environmental Art and Design Prize, reflecting her commitment to environmental storytelling through craft. In 2024, she curated and exhibited Save Our Reef at Sugar House Studios and Gallery, where she is both in-house artist and co-owner. Her work has also been shown with the Outfall Art Collective (2024) and at the Thomas Street Art Fair (2024).

Through her ceramics, she invites viewers to slow down, reconnect with nature, and carry a piece of the Australian coast into their everyday lives.

Christine O’Hagan is an artist whose work explores colour and beauty. Working primarily with oils, Christine’s practice is currently designed by abstract realism with bold use of colour.

Born in Manchester and now based in Sydney, Christine has been a finalist in the Archibald, Salon des Refuse and Portia Geach Exhibitions to name a few.

Christine creates art that celebrates beauty in the every day. She continues to develop new projects that challenge her.

Abby is a contemporary Australian artist based in Sydney, working from Sugarhouse Studio’s in Brookvale. With a background in interior design, her sensitivity to form, space and atmosphere informs her painting practice. Her work is ever evolving and guided by impulse and connection, often stirred by landscapes, people and objects that hold personal resonance. She approaches painting as a process of discovery, unearthing images that feel just beneath the surface while exploring self, memory and environment. Loose, vivid brushstrokes and bold colour run through her practice, capturing movement and emotion in works that feel alive and atmospheric.

This year has marked a period of personal growth. Abby moved into a shared art studio in Brookvale with Sugarhouse Studios, was named a finalist in The Toowoomba Gallery’s The Next Big Thing Art Prize, Finalist in Aspire Gallery’s Foot Square competition and selected to participate in Straitjacket Gallery’s Summer Salon group show. Her work is held in several states across Australia and within New Zealand.

Katrina is a contemporary Australian artist based in Sydney, dividing her painting time between Sugar House Studio in Brookvale and her cabin in the Blue Mountains. Her work centres on atmosphere and light, using subtle tonal shifts and a balance of softness and structure to evoke a felt sense of place and time. Katrina paints with water-mixable oils, for their relative kindness to human health and the environment. Drawn to weather and its moods, Katrina often finds parallels between shifting environmental conditions and the human experience. With a master’s degree in art therapy, it’s natural that her practice explores how the landscape reflects, and sometimes shapes, our emotional and spiritual states. Roads feature in her paintings, serving both as compositional anchors and as an exploration of journeys and transitions. Katrina was a finalist in the Lane Cove Art Prize 2024 and the 9x5 Landscape Prize, and the Fishers Ghost Art Prize in 2024 and 2025. Her work is held in private collections in the UK and Australia.

Alison Locke is a painter and 3D animation artist whose work explores the intersection of abstraction and realism. She is particularly drawn to the textures and folds of cloth, and is constantly exploring new ways of creating still life compositions that convey movement, depth, and a sense of mystery. Outside the studio, Alison balances her artistic practice with her role as a librarian, time spent with her children, swimming laps, and enjoying as many live music performances as possible.