About Alina Austin

I have always felt creative growing up. Whether it was through movement as a dancer, art throughout school, sewing clothes or making patchwork bed covers, I was constantly drawn to creating things with my hands. At the same time, I became fascinated with interior design, spending hours watching architectural and design programs and imagining how spaces could feel through colour, texture and composition.

In my early twenties, I explored this creativity through fashion and florals. I started a fashion label centred around silk, patterned slip dresses full of flow, and later found myself waking at dawn to visit the Sydney Flower Market, spending entire days making bouquets and centrepieces by hand. That period taught me a great deal about texture and composition, and how elements that don’t seem like they should work together can create something unexpectedly beautiful.

While studying interior design, I began to miss the hands-on process of making. I felt scattered at times, yet there was a quiet voice in my head that kept telling me to paint. Eventually I listened. I went to the art store, bought a canvas and paints, and when I began, everything seemed to melt away. It felt freeing and grounding all at once, and I realised I had found something essential to who I am.

My work is inspired by both landscapes and emotion. The colours and compositions are grounded in the forms of land and sea, yet while painting I am guided more by feeling, memory and even the music I am listening to. I rarely plan my works in advance, I move layer by layer, responding to the previous mark until the piece begins to feel resolved in its own way.

I paint because it feels freeing. It allows me to be fully myself and to follow instinct wherever it leads, bringing a sense of peace and clarity to my life. What began as an intuitive act of expression has gradually become my practice and purpose.

I am currently focused on exhibiting more, meeting private collectors, and developing opportunities to work closely with interior designers and considered spaces.