{"id":579846,"date":"2026-08-02T05:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T05:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/579846\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T05:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T05:24:12","slug":"artist-awela-turns-hobart-into-a-treasure-hunt-with-hidden-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/579846\/","title":{"rendered":"Artist Awela turns Hobart into a treasure hunt with hidden art"},"content":{"rendered":"

For as long as she can remember, Lauderdale artist Awela has been creating things.<\/p>\n

Now the 19-year-old is turning Hobart into a giant treasure hunt, hiding tiny hand-painted watercolour creatures in alleyways and secret spots across the city before posting video clues on social media for people to track them down.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was probably born with, like, a paintbrush in my hand,\u201d she told Pulse.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve just always been making stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tiny hand-painted watercolour creatures are hidden in Hobart\u2019s alleyways<\/p>\n

The idea was inspired by artists staging similar treasure hunts in cities like New York, but Awela wanted to bring the concept to Tasmania.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe barely get any cool stuff down here, so I wanted to bring something cool here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"The 19-year-old posts video clues on social media for treasure hunters<\/p>\n

\u201cI think art should be accessible and, like, easy to get and everyone needs a little art and little treasure hunts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Each drop starts with one of Awela\u2019s original watercolour creations, from mushroom characters and dragon worms to quirky little monsters.<\/p>\n

After naming the artwork, she hides it somewhere around Hobart, films the process and posts the finished video as soon as the final piece has been placed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI called one Fettuccine the other day,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Awela has been accepted into the University of Tasmania\u2019s fine arts degree<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s my favourite.\u201d<\/p>\n

She has hidden about 16 pieces so far.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the lucky finder gets in touch, while other times she only discovers a painting has been claimed when someone reports its hiding place is empty.<\/p>\n

The treasure hunts have also helped grow her online audience, lifting her social media following from about 24,000 to 26,000, with the strongest response coming on Facebook.<\/p>\n

\"\"Awela\u2019s social media following has grown from about 24,000 to 26,000<\/p>\n

After finishing Year 12 at Big Picture last year, Awela has been accepted into the University of Tasmania\u2019s Bachelor of Fine Arts, which she will begin next year.<\/p>\n

She also runs a snail mail club, sending subscribers across Australia and overseas hand-painted watercolour artworks, stickers and handwritten letters from $12 a month.<\/p>\n

\u201cArt should be accessible and fun,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s better than getting taxes in the mail.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For as long as she can remember, Lauderdale artist Awela has been creating things. Now the 19-year-old is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,308,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-579846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}