Hi, I’m Collette Quinlan.

I grew up in rural Ireland in a family of makers. My father is a wicker weaver and painter, my childhood was spent around willow, earth, natural materials and hands shaping things into existence.

I became obsessed with art early, drawing, painting and writing, fascinated by why a colour, a surface or a mark could make us feel something.

I went on to build a career in design across Ireland and Australia, spending two decades working with material, scale, composition and the relationship between people, objects and place.

Painting remained. It was where I could work instinctively. Where something could exist without needing to be solved.

Today my paintings explore memory, belonging, identity and release. What we hold within ourselves. What finds its way out. And what remains after experience changes us.

I want the work to be felt before it is understood.

To draw you closer. And perhaps to recognise something of your own story within it.

Built. Buried. Revealed. Uncontained.

Irish rooted. Melbourne based.

Upcoming Exhibition

Mount Eliza Art & Design Show, 23rd–25th Oct 2026

I’m delighted to be exhibiting five original artworks at the Mount Eliza Art & Design Show, 23rd–25th October 2026!

Rather than showcasing just one collection, I’ve chosen a selection that offers a broader look at my practice.

Different textures, different moods and different moments, all connected through my exploration of identity, movement and the space between containment and release.

I’d love you to come along, experience the work in person and discover the wider collections here on my website.

Hope to see you there!

I acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung people of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Custodians of the land and waterways where I live and create.

I pay my respects to Elders past and present, and recognise the deep and continuing connection Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have to Country, culture, story and making.

As an artist whose work is shaped by land, texture, memory and belonging, I’m conscious that I create on Country that has been cared for, understood and expressed through story and art for countless generations.

I acknowledge that this always was, and always will be, Aboriginal land.