Where it all began - the SEA Gallery Port Douglas Journey

It sounds like the start of a classic joke but that is exactly how our story began.

Dave and I met in 2011 on the stunning Algarve coastline in Portugal. Dave was backpacking, and I was escaping a drizzly UK summer for a holiday filled with surf, sunshine and beautiful beaches. Neither of us had any clue that over a decade later, we would be living in Port Douglas, raising two little boys, and running an art gallery together in paradise.

Looking back, our shared passions were already pulling us toward this life. We both fell head over heels for travel and adventure and shared a love of nature, the ocean, the outdoors and wildlife.

Discovering Inspiration in Port Douglas

After years of traveling and working through Europe and Sydney, we packed a car in 2013 and drove north. A friend sent us photos of a breathtaking tropical town where the rainforest meets the reef. It felt right instantly. We pulled into Port Douglas and, like many locals, started out working in the local resorts.

Then, the tropical low season arrived.

Work slowed down, we suddenly found lots of spare time and I picked up a paintbrush again. Anyone who has ever wandered through the rainforests of Far North Queensland or snorkelled the Great Barrier Reef knows how easy it is to feel inspired here. 

The colours of the reef felt completely unreal:

• Turquoise waters shifting under the tropical sun

• Deep rainforest greens of the Daintree

• Iconic wildlife, from green sea turtles to majestic cassowaries

I couldn't stop painting. Soon our small apartment was overflowing with canvases and Dave, in his characteristically practical way, suggested I try selling them.

From Two Suitcases to the Port Douglas Markets

Without a car or a market marquee, I packed my original paintings into two suitcases and dragged them from Four Mile Beach all the way into town for the famous Sunday Port Douglas Markets.

I had no table, no chair and not much of a plan. I simply laid a blanket on the grass, set out my artwork, and hoped for the best.

Right then, the incredible local market community stepped in. Fellow stallholders came over to say hello and ended up lending me a chair, a table, and a marquee. By the time the gates opened, I had a real actual market stall and by the afternoon, every single painting had sold.

That morning changed the trajectory of our lives. While family would call us back to Sydney shortly afterwards, we knew that Far North Queensland was calling.

Building a Sustainable Fine Art Business

Back in Sydney, as the demand for my original paintings grew, I faced a creative hurdle: I couldn't paint fast enough to keep up. To grow sustainably, I decided to introduce high-quality fine art prints.

I refused to make cheap, throwaway reproductions. If someone was inviting my art into their home, I wanted the heavy paper to feel beautiful and the archival colours to last a lifetime.

As the business evolved, Dave officially stepped inside it. Armed with an MBA and an incredibly organized mind, he took over our bookkeeping, product management, and printing logistics. We invested in our own professional, large-format fine art printer (which barely fit in our apartment), and Dave mastered the technical side of printing, learning the whole process from meticulous colour-matching to custom print packaging.

Where I brought the creative eye, Dave brought the technical precision.

Merging Fine Art with Underwater Photography

Around this time, photography entered our lives. I needed high-quality reference photos of sea turtles and marine life for my paintings, so we bought an underwater housing for my camera and started photographing the reef. 

What started as a practical tool quickly turned into Dave's greatest creative outlet. He fell in love with photography, capturing local reef systems and wildlife from entirely new perspectives. 

Eventually he settled into two main niches, underwater wildlife and drone landscape photography and spent all of his spare time peering through a lens.

We took thousands of photos on trips up and down the east coast and then the moment we'd get home, I'd lock myself in the studio and paint until the next trip.

The Dream Realized: Opening SEA Gallery

In 2020, we finally packed up and moved back to paradise. It felt great to be back and we quickly slipped into the easy rhythm of creating all week and markets on the weekend.

We had always dreamed of opening a physical space where people could walk in straight after a day on the reef or in the rainforest and find a piece of art to help them hold onto that feeling. 

When a small space on Macrossan St opened up, we took a leap of faith and signed on for a temporary pop-up shop. We rolled up our sleeves, painted the walls and threw open the doors.

What happened next completely caught us off guard. Almost immediately, pieces began selling so quickly that I couldn’t paint fast enough to keep the display filled. Staring at our rapidly emptying pop-up, I turned to Dave with a desperate ultimatum, “You need to start printing your photography.”

Like many talented creatives, Dave resisted at first, feeling his portfolio wasn't quite ready for the spotlight. But with bare walls and an urgent need for inventory, his pieces went up anyway... and they starting selling out too.

Soon, the shop was evenly split down the middle with my paintings on one side and Dave's photos on the other.

In February 2024, that dream became a permanent reality when we opened the doors to our full-time home: SEA Gallery.

Our Creative Philosophy is that every single painting and photograph we create at SEA Gallery is rooted in a real, lived experience. A close turtle encounter, a drift across a coral garden, a quiet rainforest walk or a moment of light hitting the coast.

Today, the gallery retains the same layout; my original paintings and fine art prints on one side of the space, and Dave's ocean and landscape photos on the other.

When we aren't at the gallery, you'll find us outside with our boys, exploring the reef, chasing the sunset at Rex Smeal Park or walking on Four Mile Beach.

Thank you so much for supporting our small family business and being a part of this creative journey.

Steph x