Health Infrastructure NSW commissioned a series of artworks and a creative collage activity kit for the new Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) Unit at Nepean Hospital, designed for young people aged 12–17 across Western Sydney and the Blue Mountains.

The artwork needed to support wellbeing, reduce stigma, and create a calm and welcoming environment within a purpose-built mental health facility. The brief called for a cohesive series of artworks inspired by the natural landscape, while maintaining familiar, accessible imagery that would resonate with young people.

In addition to the framed artworks, the commission required a creative activity kit, encouraging self-expression, creativity, and emotional engagement — supporting the clinical goal of building resilience, agency, and connection.

The challenge was to develop a visual language that felt comforting without being simplistic, engaging without being overwhelming, and hopeful without being prescriptive — creating moments of calm, curiosity, and reflection within the space.

Working with Sydney Collage Society and Creative Producer Marika Perrow, artist Kubi Vasak developed Portals to Somewhere Familiar, a series of six collage and mixed media artworks and a creative collage activity kit, designed to create moments of calm, familiarity, and creative engagement throughout the CAMHS Unit. The broader hospital commission also includes artworks by Jessica Tobin and mural works by Andrew Botham-Whetham, aka Studio Dennis across key hospital spaces.

The strategy centred on familiar everyday objects and natural elements drawn from the Blue Mountains landscape, creating a visual language that felt grounded, calming, and approachable. By combining plants, domestic objects, and landscape forms, the artworks introduce a gentle narrative of growth, resilience, and connection to place.

Circular forms and cut-outs are used throughout the series as visual portals, symbolising movement, transition, and possibility. These portals create connections between interior and exterior worlds, reinforcing themes of growth, perspective, and emotional journey.

The colour palette draws directly from the Blue Mountains environment, using soft natural tones and layered textures to create a calming and cohesive visual language across the facility.

Alongside the artworks, the creative collage activity kit extends this concept into active participation, allowing young people to create their own layered compositions using accessible materials and guided prompts, encouraging self-expression, conversation, and creative exploration.

The visual identity is grounded in nature, everyday objects, and layered collage compositions, creating a gentle and approachable language for young audiences. Plants, mountains, and domestic elements introduce familiarity and stability, while layered forms and circular “portals” suggest imagination, reflection, and transition, blending still life traditions with contemporary collage. Negative space and shifting perspectives encourage new ways of seeing the familiar, where interior and exterior environments merge into calm, dreamlike landscapes. Across the series, soft textures and organic shapes evoke memory and movement, with Blue Mountains–inspired colours grounding the work in place. Overall, the tone is calm, optimistic, and quietly uplifting, supporting emotional ease, safety, and a sense of connection through a cohesive visual narrative of growth and resilience.

The project includes six framed artworks installed across the CAMHS Unit, creating moments of calm and visual interest throughout shared and private spaces.

The creative collage activity kit extends the visual language into an interactive experience, providing:

• Accessible collage materials

• Imagery inspired by the hero artworks

• Easy-to-follow instructions and prompts

• Opportunities for creativity, reflection, and conversation

Together, the artworks and activity materials create a supportive creative environment, encouraging both passive engagement and active participation.

The Nepean Hospital CAMHS commission delivers a calm, nature-inspired collage series that supports wellbeing, creativity, and emotional comfort for young people.

Through Portals to Somewhere Familiar, the artworks create gentle visual moments of reflection and imagination, while the creative activity kit encourages active participation and self-expression.

The result is a cohesive, thoughtful visual environment that supports young people, families, and staff, aligning with the clinical goal of stability, resilience, and healing through creativity.