Chelsea Hopkins-Allan

Dr Nikolai Tatarnic, curator of entomology, showing me some of the newly donated Albany WA insect specimens at the WA Museum. This photo accurately represents the fun and talking about insects that actually occurred! 😁🤣😆

52 boxes of specimens from Albany, were donated to the WA Museum before my residency. Most of these were beautiful MOTHS. These specimens were all collected by Mike Payne. Still in their wooden specimen boxes, yet to be sorted into the collection. I got to explore these specimens during my residency. If anyone knows Mike Payne please let him know to visit and see some of his specimens I painted and photographed! 

I show just a few of these boxes here for you.

Helena Gum Moth, Opodiphthera Helena
Oil on board, 35 X 45cm

TINY LIVES BORROWED LIGHT, showing at the Museum of the Great Southern

10-4pm daily
Until 20th September 2026


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An exhibition showing my research and paintings from my 'Activating Collections' 2025 Artist Residency.

This residency and exhibition is supported by :  

Museum of the Great Southern
ART ON THE MOVE
Gallery Central

With lots of help from Dr Nikolai Tatarnic, curator of entomology in the WA Museum! Nikolai Tatarnic

(Thank you! 😁)

Now on! Tiny Lives, Borrowed Light

An exhibition showing my research and paintings from my 'Activating Collections' 2025 Artist Residency is currently showing at the Museum of the Great Southern in Albany.

10-4pm daily
Until 20th September 2026

There are QR codes with every painting and some of the photos - use these to see videos and photos from under the microscope and specimens in the museum and the actual moths I found in the field, using the UV blacklight.

There is also a room to create your own Bogong moth to be part of a participatory mural to later be installed somewhere in Albany.

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This residency and exhibition is supported by :  

Museum of the Great Southern
ART ON THE MOVE
Gallery Central

With lots of help from Dr Nikolai Tatarnic, curator of entomology in the WA Museum!

(Thank you! 😁)

I love how fluffy these ones are, with such big shoulders. Dr Nik showed me CT scans of insects when I was at the museum. It shows all the layers right down to their innermost organs. Something I had never given much thought to is how MUSCULAR a moths shoulders need to be, to flap those big wings! It's all contained inside the external skeleton (exoskeleton). Seeing them under the microscope with binocular vision really makes them come out at you and you see how hefty they are (apparently until you look at them again without magnification!) 

This is another local Albany moth! 

It is a species of Oenochromae moth, I need to check the exact species from my pictures.

I painted this one from a Museum specimen, so I could capture the wings spread. Orienting it on its pin to take reference shots to work on back in the studio as well as close up examination under the microscope. 

Part of my ‘ACTIVATING COLLECTIONS’ ARTIST RESIDENCY 

Upcoming exhibition at the Museum of the Great Southern (my local branch of the WA Museum) 24 Aug - 20 Sept 2025. 

Supported by :  

Museum of the Great Southern
ART ON THE MOVE
Gallery Central

I found this moth on a glass door at my place. It was really cool with translucent sort of shimmery wings with scales on top. I used some special powdered infererenceb blue pigment to show this although you can't make it out in the photo.

I haven't IDed the moth yet. Honestly I hadn't seen anything like it before which was why I was excited to find it and then paint it. Please feel free to offer helpful suggestions! 😜

🤍

‘ACTIVATING COLLECTIONS’ ARTIST RESIDENCY 

Upcoming exhibition at the Museum of the Great Southern (my local branch of the WA Museum) 24 Aug - 20 Sept 2025. 

 
This residency was supported by :
Museum of the Great Southern
ART ON THE MOVE
Gallery Central