WELCOME

Wool, water, soap and hands ~ and a playful imagination 💕

Sue Smorthwaite has opened her Yallingup workshop for the first time, inviting us into a colourful space filled with felt animals, scarves, hats, mobiles and raw wool in rainbow shades. Sue works in wet felting, layering fine wisps of wool into sheets ~ as few as two for a drapeable scarf, up to ten or more for a sculptural piece ~ then agitating with water until the fibres entangle and shrink.

Keen to discover more textile artists? Visit our website, the `Meet the Artists` page, and filter by Medium > Textiles. You can also look for artists working in upcycling, sculpture, metalwork, drawing and much more.

🎨 @sue_smorthwaite_yallingupfelt

🎨 Margaret River Region Open Studios is free to attend, and runs until Sunday 27 September 2026
📖 Pick up an event guide or browse 152 artists at the website ~ mrropenstudios.com.au/meet-the-artists

📸 @oviscreative

One day Kate Jones-English would like to be the Beatrix Potter of Busselton. We think she`s well on her way ❤️

An illustrator, author and part-time baker, Kate works in traditional nib ink and watercolour ~ a nostalgic style shaped by a childhood spent with Brambly Hedge, Peter Rabbit and Quentin Blake. Her children`s book illustrations have a warmth and delicacy that adults find just as hard to resist as kids do.

Kate`s pop-up studio `Tweedsmere` is inside Tandem Espresso ~ the little café on Prince Street that she runs with her husband. You`ll find original artworks, prints, her recent book A Cake for a Picnic from the Adventures of Miss Mouse, and a custom illustration corner where Kate will work on quick commissions while you watch.

🎨 @tweedsmere

❤️Margaret River Region Open Studios is free to attend, and runs until Sunday 27 September 2026
📖 Pick up an event guide or browse 152 artists at the website ~ mrropenstudios.com.au/meet-the-artists

Before Jill Jardine was a painter, she was a skydiver. A scuba diver. A skier. A long-distance cyclist. Someone who said `yes` to the kind of experiences most people only dream about.

Her paintings capture that energy ~ the adrenaline, beauty and freedom, layered in paint and process. She`s won the People`s Choice Award at the Quindalup Biennial in 2024 and again this year, and Open Studios is a once-a-year opportunity to see where her creativity comes to fruition.

It`s an extraordinary generosity to open one`s home, and we`re grateful for the 152 artists opening their usually-private spaces for Open Studios. Please enjoy the opportunity to meet the artists, find out about their practice and perhaps even buy something special to take home ❤️

🎨@jilljardine_art

❤️ @margaretriverregionopenstudios
🕰️ 12-27 September 2027
🎨 152 artists to visit and meet

Tiny trees sculpted in clay, blue wrens perched on driftwood, whimsical houses and floral wreaths with delicate ceramic flower.

Rochelle La’Brooy-McIver has transformed her garden and studio into a wonderland, for us to browse (and perhaps buy) her artworks in the very place she made them.

"My grandmother was a potter and dried flower artist who could turn her hand to almost any craft. As a child I followed her constantly, watching and learning. She showed me that making by hand was both practical and joyful — not something mysterious, but something you simply did."

It`s an extraordinary generosity to open one`s garden and studio, and we`re grateful for the 152 artists opening their usually-private spaces for Open Studios. Please enjoy the opportunity to meet the artists, find out about their practice and perhaps even buy something special to take home ❤️

🎨 @theclayfulpotter
🕰️ 12-27 September 2026
📍 The Margaret River Region
🎨 Pick up a free event guide or browse mrropenstudios.com.au/meet-the-artists

📸 @oviscreative

From the wheatbelt to a Margaret River studio surrounded by peppermint and marri trees ~ Julie-Ann Brown has been building her art practice for twenty years.

She paints portraits and nature in contemporary realism ~ buttery oil paint, fine detail, the effects of light on a face or a landscape captured at exactly the right moment. Finalist in the Lester, Kilgour and Kennedy prizes, Julie-Ann has been practicing speed portraits ~ and she’s also running workshops if you’d like to try oil painting yourself.

We’re almost half way through Open Studios 2026, and with just 10 days left there’s still time to take an art crawl of your own. Pick up an event guide, browse all artist listings at our website, or simply look out for Open Studios signs as you drive around the region.

🎨 @julieannbrownartist
🕰️ 12-27 September 2026
📍 The Margaret River Region
🎨 152 artists to visit and meet

📸 @oviscreative

If Open Studios is all about discovering gems of artists at the end of gravel roads, why not travel a little further and see what you find south of Margaret River.

In reverse southerly order, here’s a taste of the rewards when you venture to Australia’s most south western corner...

📍 Augusta
🎨 Paula Higginson
🎨 Sarah Zel Chescoe @sarahzelchescoe

📍 Forest Grove
🎨 Jilly Riley @jilly.ofalltrades
🎨 John Bowskill @john_bowskill

📍Witchcliffe & Rosa Glen
🎨 Andrew Tremain @andrew_tremain_ceramics
🎨 Kate, Anthony and Tom Debbo @katedebbo @ant.debbo @tomothy_debbs
🎨 Caroline Bannister @carobannisterart
🎨 Wendy Castleden
🎨 Honor Denby @thebarnmr

Thirty years as an art educator and with a lifelong love of the beach, Trish Waters` studio is strolling distance from Dunsborough`s sandy shores and you`ll see it in her artwork.

Layered and luminous, her paintings depict the shifting light in a forest, vast coastal skies or indigo ocean depths. Paintings, silk scarves, baskets threaded with beads and beach finds ~ Trish works across many disciplines, inspired by the textures and colours of the shoreline.

Speaking of strolling, Trish is one of several Dunsborough artists within walking distance of town. Park the car and explore on foot ~ Trish, Eva Cassini, Toni Salmon, Kim Kiosses, Christian Fletcher, Dawid Brzezinski, Stephanie Stokes and Heidi Emma Mullender. And a little further afield ~ Ian Mutch, Heather Thomson and Libby-Jean Muhling.

🎨 @trishwatersart