When you talk with Australian artist and textile designer Eloise Short, you immediately sense the world she lives in, a landscape of Blue Mountain eucalyptus, sweeping valley light, and birds that seem to pause just long enough for her to paint them. Her studio is the sunroom of her family home, a bright, plant-lined space she’s claimed fully and unapologetically (“Nobody else wants the sunroom,” she laughs. “So it’s mine, and I’m keeping it.”). It’s where each piece of our collaboration begins.
A Studio Held by Sunlight
Eloise works in the pockets of the day between school drop-offs, kid-ferrying, and the rhythm of family life. She calls her creative time the “highlight,” a moment she can finally set aside the admin and pick up her brushes. Her practice is grounded in gouache, a medium traditionally favored in textile design, and one she first trained in at university.
“I prefer to hand paint,” she says. “It’s more satisfying. There’s nothing like the feeling of a brush on paper.”
Even though each painted motif eventually moves into a digital format for scanning and layout, the original work is always tactile first, with texture, pigment, and the unpredictability of the hand.
Where the Motifs Begin
In the last several years, Eloise’s work has centered on the flora and fauna of the Blue Mountains, the World Heritage–listed national park she calls home. Living among such vivid biodiversity shifted her practice toward something more grounded and personal.
“It felt inauthentic not to reflect the plants and birds around me,” she says.
The result is a body of work that’s richly researched, a long process of studying species, gathering references, hand-painting individual motifs, and then building them into repeating patterns that come alive on whatever surface they grace.
There is structure, yes. But there is also play. “You think something will work in repeat and it doesn’t,” she says. “So you abandon it and try something new.” That blend of spontaneity and craft animates every pattern in this collaboration.
Environmental Care, Quietly Woven In
While not a single narrative thread, Eloise’s work is shaped by a concern for the environment. “So many of the birds and plants I paint are endangered or vulnerable,” she says. “Spotlighting them doesn’t fix the problem, but it reminds us to take more care.” It’s a subtle, but meaningful undercurrent to the collection: beauty as attention, attention as care.
Designs That Invite Joy Into a Space
When asked how she hopes people feel living with her wallpaper, Eloise is clear:
“I hope it gives them a little happy moment each day.”
Surroundings matter to us. The softness of a color palette, the sweep of a branch, the presence of a small bird perched in a corner repeat. Her designs offer that pocket of tranquility.
On Seeing Her Work in the World
For someone whose work appears globally, Eloise still lights up when she spots it unexpectedly. She recalls once seeing a man in the Blue Mountains wearing a shirt she designed. She stopped him, she had to. “He thought it was very cool,” she says. “I still get excited every time I see my work out in the wild.” We do too!
The Artscape + Eloise Short Collaboration
Bringing Eloise’s work to Artscape felt natural. Her attention to craft, her hand-painted detail, her reverence for place. These designs translate beautifully to wallpaper, brimming with grounded hues and the vibrancy of Australian flora and fauna.
We’re thrilled to introduce her work into homes far beyond the Blue Mountains, and we hope you feel those “little moments of joy” every time you walk into the room.
Explore Eloise Short's Artscape Collaboration.
