I’m Mia Sully, a self-taught abstract artist based in Melbourne, Australia. My work is driven by a love of colour, the beauty of the natural world and the feelings, memories and connections that make a place feel like home.

Florals hold a particularly special place in my practice. For me, flowers have always been about more than their beauty. They carry stories, hold memories and connect us to the people we love. Daffodils and freesias, for example, will always remind me of my mum. They grew in her garden and, because my birthday falls in spring, she would pick them fresh for my bedside each year as they began to bloom. Even now, seeing these flowers brings me back to those moments and the feeling of being cared for.

My daughter Poppy was named after the flower, and it’s become a really special part of my connection to florals. We lost her, and seeing poppies always brings a little reminder of her into my day. There’s something comforting about having that connection through nature, and I love that flowers can hold so much love and meaning, even when the people we miss aren’t here with us.

These personal connections are a big part of why I love creating commissioned pieces. I enjoy learning about the flowers that hold meaning for someone, whether they remind them of a loved one, a childhood garden, a special place or a moment in their life. Bringing these details into an abstract floral painting allows me to create something that is not only made for a home, but deeply personal to the person who lives with it.

I’m drawn to the idea that art can become part of a family’s story. A painting can hold the memory of someone we love, a place we hold close or a moment in time that we never want to forget. Over the years, it can become an heirloom, passed down through generations, carrying those stories and connections with it. I think there is something really beautiful about creating a piece that can be lived with, loved and eventually shared with the next generation, allowing those memories to continue long after the moment itself has passed.

My practice has grown from a natural love of creating into a career that has taken my work into homes across Europe, Australia and New Zealand, into gallery exhibitions and art fairs, and into collaborations that bring my artwork beyond the canvas and into everyday life. As a self-taught artist, I’ve found my own way of working through experimentation, trusting my intuition and allowing colour to lead the way.

At the heart of everything I create is the belief that art can make us feel something. I want my work to bring warmth, joy and a sense of connection into the spaces it lives in, while leaving room for each person to find their own meaning within it. For me, painting is about capturing a feeling, holding onto a memory and creating something that can be loved for generations to come.