Learning how to create an art collection doesn’t mean making a group of artworks that all look the same. Often, it begins with allowing one piece to lead you toward the next—a color, mark, technique, story, or feeling becoming the thread that connects a larger body of work.
Creating in Collections
Have you ever finished a piece of artwork you love and then wondered what you should create next?
For me, the answer is often found in the artwork I have just finished.
Rather than immediately moving on to something completely different, I often allow one piece to lead me towards another. A colour might spark an idea. A particular mark might need to be explored further. A technique might suddenly feel like it has more to say.
Before long, one artwork can become two, then three, and sometimes an entire body of work begins to emerge.
This is creating in collections, and it has been part of my creative practice for as long as I can remember.
I first discovered the value of working this way through textile and surface pattern design, long before I began focusing primarily on my own original artwork. What I learned through designing patterns for licensing has continued to influence the way I approach my paintings today.
Why I began creating in collections
When I was working as a textile pattern designer, I rarely created just one isolated design.
Instead, I developed collections of coordinating patterns that were designed to work together.
This was important because the people licensing my designs often needed more than one pattern. A fabric company might want a feature design alongside smaller coordinating prints. A collection could provide several options that worked beautifully together across a range of products.
For example, someone making an outfit might use one fabric for a shirt and another coordinating design for a pair of pants. The designs don’t need to be identical. They simply need to work together.
The same applied when a company was licensing designs for a product range. They might want several related designs rather than one standalone pattern, giving them the flexibility to use different designs across different products while maintaining a cohesive look.
I loved this way of working.
There was freedom within the framework.
I could explore different patterns, colours and scales while still having something connecting them all.
That idea stayed with me when I began creating original artwork.
What makes an art collection?
Creating in collections doesn’t mean creating a series of very similar artworks.
For me, a collection usually has a common thread running through it.
That might be a colour palette, a theme, a story, a particular technique, a feeling or a combination of several elements.
Sometimes I will work with three pieces, which can become a small collection. Other collections may grow to ten or twelve artworks.
The artworks might all be the same size, or they might be completely different.
What matters is the relationship between them.
I often think of a collection as a family of artworks. Each piece has its own personality, but there is something that tells you they belong together.
And sometimes, that connection isn’t something I consciously plan at all.
When the collection tells you it isn’t finished
One of my collections, Golden Aurora, taught me something particularly important about creating in collections.
I had created ten artworks and genuinely thought I was finished.
I was happy with them. They belonged together. The colour palette was working beautifully, and I felt that the collection had reached its natural conclusion.
But later that evening, while I was sitting and thinking about the collection, I suddenly had a very clear vision.
I could see beautiful long grasses with sunlight coming through behind them. The grasses were catching the light and gently glistening.
And I knew.
There was one piece missing.
The next day I went into my studio and created it.
I painted the Golden Grasses using the same beautiful colouring and metallic elements that ran through the other works. I wanted the light to feel soft and shimmery, almost as though the sun was glowing through the grasses.
And when that piece was finished, I knew the collection was complete.
That experience reminded me that creating in collections isn’t always about following a predetermined plan.
Sometimes you must create the work, step away from it and listen.
The collection itself can tell you what it needs.
Golden Aurora: creating within a visual framework
Golden Aurora eventually became a collection of eleven A2 artworks on paper, all framed in the same way and sharing a similar colour palette and visual language.
Creating eleven pieces within a similar framework might sound restrictive, but I actually find the opposite happens.
Once I establish some of the boundaries, I have more freedom to explore what happens within them.
I can experiment with movement, composition, marks and small changes in colour while knowing that the pieces will ultimately sit comfortably alongside one another.
Individually, each artwork has its own character.
Together, they create something more.
There is a rhythm that becomes visible when the collection is viewed as a whole.
Sometimes you discover the connection as you create
Another collection, Forces in Motion, came together quite differently.
I didn’t set out consciously thinking that there would be one particular element connecting every piece.
But as the collection developed, I began to notice something.
There was a golden thread running through all of the artworks.
Every piece contained some element of metallic gold, often appearing as a band or flowing line through the painting.
To me, it felt like an energy frequency. A beautiful, positive energy moving through the collection.
At the time, I didn’t fully understand what I was creating. I simply knew that this golden element kept appearing.
It wasn’t until I was preparing the collection for my solo exhibition at Juniper Galleries in March 2026 that I truly saw what had happened.
As I placed the artworks on the gallery walls, I could see the gold moving from one painting into the next.
One golden wave connected to another, which connected to another.
Suddenly, the individual paintings weren’t just separate artworks.
They were connected.
As I arranged the works around the gallery, I was able to position them so that the direction of the golden movement flowed from one painting into the next.
The wave traveled around the gallery.
It created a sense of movement and energy across the entire exhibition space.
That was such a beautiful reminder to me that sometimes the strongest connections within a collection aren’t planned at the beginning.
They reveal themselves through the process of creating.
A collection doesn’t have to look uniform
Forces in Motion is also a good example of why I don’t think a collection needs to be uniform.
The artworks range from approximately 30 centimetres through to 120 x 180 centimetres. Some are framed and some are unframed.
So what connects them?
The movement, colour, energy, materials and techniques.
As a mixed media artist, I work with a combination of materials and processes. When I’m developing a collection, I will generally establish a particular approach and carry that through the body of work.
For example, if spray paint is an important part of the process, it will generally feature throughout the collection, with hand painted details and other elements added to individual pieces.
The artworks don’t need to match.
They need to speak the same visual language.
Cohesion doesn’t have to mean uniformity.
Collections can create more possibilities for collectors
There is another reason I love working in collections, and that is the possibilities they create for the person who eventually lives with the artwork.
Someone might fall in love with one painting and then discover that another piece from the same collection would work beautifully alongside it.
Two or three artworks can be hung together to create a larger visual statement.
Alternatively, different pieces can be placed throughout a home, with the colours and feeling connecting the spaces.
For a business, hospitality space or interior designer, this becomes even more useful.
A collection can allow several artworks to be used throughout different rooms while maintaining a sense of cohesion.
The individual artworks still need to stand on their own, but the collection gives the collector more choices.
For me, that is one of the beautiful things about creating a body of work with intention. I’m not only thinking about the individual painting. I’m thinking about the possibilities that might exist beyond it.
Creating in collections can help when you feel stuck
There is another creative benefit to collections that I didn’t fully appreciate when I first started working this way.
Sometimes having a direction makes it easier to begin.
Instead of staring at a blank canvas and thinking, What should I paint?, I can ask myself a much more interesting question:
What else could this idea become?
I might begin with one colour.
Or a particular mark.
Or a memory.
Or something I’ve noticed in the Australian landscape.
That starting point can then become the thread that leads me into the next artwork.
I don’t necessarily know what the final collection will look like when I begin.
Part of the joy is allowing it to evolve.
How to start creating your own collection
If you usually create one artwork at a time, try giving yourself permission to think beyond the single piece.
You don’t need to plan twelve artworks.
Start with three.
Choose one or two things that will connect them. It might be a limited colour palette, a subject, a particular material or simply a feeling you want the work to evoke.
Then allow yourself some freedom within those boundaries.
Try different compositions.
Change the scale.
Repeat a shape or mark.
Experiment with the same technique in different ways.
The goal isn’t to make three matching pieces.
The goal is to discover what happens when they begin to have a conversation with one another.
Sometimes I start with one canvas, or maybe 10 small ones all together but I usually continue creating until the story feels complete. Sometimes I add pieces I created earlier that match perfectly too.
Try this to create your own collection
Take three of your existing artworks and place them together.
They don’t have to be from the same collection.
Look at them as a group and ask yourself:
What connects these pieces?
Is it colour?
Texture?
Movement?
Subject matter?
Mood?
Your mark-making?
Then ask:
If I created a fourth piece, what could I carry forward from these three?
You might be surprised by what you discover.
You may even realise that you already have the beginning of a collection without knowing it.
Let the collection evolve
For me, creating in collections isn’t about knowing exactly where I’m going before I start.
It’s about creating enough of a framework to give my ideas somewhere to grow.
My experience in textile and surface pattern design taught me the commercial value of creating coordinated bodies of work, but my artwork has taught me something else.
Collections can create a deeper creative conversation.
One piece can influence the next.
A colour can reappear.
A technique can evolve.
A story can become more meaningful as it unfolds across several artworks.
And sometimes, when I step back and see all the pieces together, I discover that the collection has become something I could never have planned at the beginning.
Sometimes an idea needs more than one canvas to tell its beautiful story.
Explore my collections
My collections are inspired by the Australian landscape, nature, colour, movement and the intuitive process of creating.
If you’d like to explore my original artworks and see how individual pieces come together within a collection, visit my website:
