A colourful peek behind the scenes (shh!) 🎨
 

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Want a sneak peek at something special?

My kids and I just submitted 12 small artworks to the Incognito Art Show 2025 – an exhibition where every painting is sold for $100, and buyers don’t know the artist until after they’ve bought it! It’s a way we love to give back – with all profits supporting professional art studios for people living with disability in NSW.

Visit the Incognito Art Show held in Australia. 
 

We created our artworks together using my Lava Colour Scheme (a warm and punchy palette from my 7 Essential Colour Schemes guide). These little paintings were made on 12 A6 cards and layered with our Pattern Play methods. Here's my kids quietly painting the Exploring Stage together between gaming sessions in the school holidays:

We did about 8 layers? Maybe more - one or two colours at a time - keep it SIMPLE. You can see the Pattern Play cards - each kid chose one that caught their eye to get started with their blue patterning over the black lava-inspired shapes. 

Each piece holds a story – of family connection, creativity, and quiet contribution. My second child, who has disabilities himself, was especially proud to be part of something that supports other artists like him. And he did a quick layer every day - I was proud of THAT!
 

Final stage with BLING, realigned together after we each did our own personalisation of our three with paint pens matching the colour scheme. I LOVE them!
 

We looked at images of lava to inspire our patterns, and even listened to the sound of bubbling lava while painting the black areas. (I usually tint black with a bit of colour — pure black can feel like a ‘dead’ colour — but in this artwork, it really worked. It represents the burnt, crusted surface of cooling lava perfectly.)

Here's the Lava colour scheme we based this (these) artworks on:

If you're curious, the colour guide we used is available here: 
          👉 7 Essential Colour Schemes – $15

The graphic above shows the Galaxy theme in action in a detail of a large mural created with 20 teenage girls.

P.S. Have you ever donated your art or creativity to a cause? Hit reply – I'd love to hear your story!