June
June arrives and Sydney grows just that fraction quieter. Skies shift from brilliant blue to countless shades of grey and everything in between. The light comes in low and sideways and silvery, and the city almost imperceptibly slows.
It is nothing like the heavy winters further south, nor the long pale nights of the Northern Hemisphere – and yet there is a softening. A permission. The kind of morning that asks you to stay inside a little longer, hands wrapped around something warm.
I have been feeling this a lot lately. After months of the French light from La Maison Kintsugi still burning through my canvases, still insisting on itself in the current Sydney exhibition, there is something genuinely welcome about the shift.
The Kimberley, where my bones still live a little, taught me seasons that arrive with authority. Even the mild Sydney damp carries its own authority, if you let it.
Perhaps that is why I keep returning to the same question in the studio: what does colour want to do in winter?
There is a temptation to retreat into ochres and charcoals, to let the palette match the sky. A longing for darkness, perhaps. And sometimes that is exactly right. There is enormous honesty in a muted canvas.
But I have also been finding that winter is when I crave the most outrageous gestures of colour. A strong pink that feels exactly right. A warm cadmium inviting you to come closer and warm up. Colour becomes less about brightness and more about warmth. Less about attention and more about comfort.
In the middle of these contemplations, a woman arrived at the studio and spent time wandering through the gallery. She was thinking about changing her home, introducing new artworks, and bringing warmth and life to a few walls that felt empty and cold.
I loved that conversation because it felt connected to everything I had been thinking about.
Art does something that no interior design trick fully can. It holds colour without exclusion. A painting can carry warmth on a cold wall, can hold the memory of a different season, can ask a room to be two things at once.
In these months I find myself reaching for works that carry heat – not decoration, but genuine warmth, always attached to a story.
Winter is genuinely good for making things.
Not every creative season is dramatic. Some of the most important work happens in small, consistent sessions on grey afternoons. The pressure is off. No one is watching, and the light asks nothing of you.
I try to remember this when motivation dips, when the studio feels cold before I have started the heater, or when the bed at five o'clock in the morning makes a very compelling argument.
A few things that actually help: laying out comfortable clothes the evening before, slipping into them without thinking and beginning before you feel ready. The body warms once you start. Keeping something on the studio table that excites you. Treating quieter periods not as failure, but as gathering.
All winters end with an enormous accumulation of material – visual, emotional, textural – waiting to become something in spring.
The highs arrive unexpectedly in this season.
A morning where the light suddenly falls through rain-wet glass at a strange angle and you find yourself mixing a colour you have never mixed before. A quiet afternoon where two hours disappear and something becomes itself on the canvas without you quite deciding it.
These moments feel more precious for their rarity, for the grey that frames them.
Winter is also the best time to rethink how you live in your space.
We come indoors and suddenly notice everything: the light we are missing, the wall that could carry something better, the corner that has never quite worked.
Redesigning your home for the colder months is not really about decoration. It is about deciding how you want a room to feel when you are sitting in it with a hot chocolate at six o'clock in the evening and daylight has long disappeared.
Warm textiles. Things to look at that move you. A lamp positioned for reading. A surface where something creative can live without being packed away.
These are small decisions, but together they amount to a kind of curation. You are designing the conditions for the life you want to have in winter.
Art is one of the quickest ways to change how a room feels. Not because of decoration, but because of presence. The right work in the right place makes a room hold its breath differently.
If you have been thinking about it, winter is exactly the time.
Thank you so very much for reading my notes, and for being interested in the work, the thinking, and the feeling behind it.
These letters are a way of staying in conversation with the people who matter to what I do.
I hope your winter is filled with warmth, colour, and moments of quiet creativity.
See you in the studio.
With lots of love,
Kirana xx
What's On:
Still time to visit my Sydney exhibition
I wanted to share a little reminder that my current solo exhibition with ArtSHINE is now underway in Sydney, and there is still time to visit.
‘You Have Woven Your Love Into My Life’ is showing until 26 June at the Community Bank Darling Square Gallery in Haymarket, bringing together a collection of works exploring colour, connection, warmth, and the quiet ways love is woven through everyday life.
If you’re in Sydney over the coming weeks, I would absolutely love for you to experience the exhibition in person, and I am more than happy to meet with you there.
There will also be an artist talk during the exhibition, with the date to be announced soon.
Exhibition Details
6 May to 26 June 2026
Location
Community Bank Darling Square
Shop NE12, 11 Little Pier Street
Haymarket NSW 2000
I hope to see many of you there.
Open Studio + Walk in Art Class
Next Dates - 17th, 20th, 24th & 27th of June, 1st, 4th, 8th, 11th and 15th of July
Kirana’s studio is open on Wednesdays from 10am to 4pm, and most Saturdays from 9am to 12pm (when Kirana is available). You’re warmly invited to drop in, have a look around the studio, enjoy a cup of tea or hot chocolate, and stay for a relaxed chat. There’s no pressure and no expectations — just an open door and a welcoming space.
By popular demand, Saturdays also include a walk-in art class from 10am to 12pm. This relaxed and friendly session is open to everyone — whether you’re an experienced artist or simply curious to explore your creative side. All materials are provided, and the focus is on enjoying the process of making art in a calm, supportive environment.
Art Class Details:
10am – 12pm
$70 per person (GST included)
All materials included
We look forward to welcoming you into the studio.
One on One Art Lessons
Can be booked suitable to your timetable, tailored to your needs and all ages.
$110 p/h (GST inc) | All art materials included
ArtSHINE x Kirana Haag collection on Threadless
Friends & Family Code: FAMd6e722b
Final Notes
All the above are also great gift ideas for a loved one who would benefit from some breathing space and would love to try something new.
If you would like more information on any of these workshops or to book, simply reply to this email or contact me on 0448446466.
With lots of love,
Kirana xx