Hannah Pengilly may just be Murrumbateman’s biggest name in town after the local artist recently saw her work displayed across Australia’s biggest stage – the Sydney Opera House.
The 26-year-old isn’t a stranger to seeing her name in big lights after amassing an incredible 2.9 million followers on TikTok, 88,800 on Instagram and more than one million on YouTube. She now splits her time evenly between working as an art influencer and running her successful photography business.
“I like to stay grounded with an everyday job, and I love photography,” she says.
Hannah’s business, Dark Horse Creative, has also amassed quite a following as she works with brands within Canberra.
“I feel like I have two part time jobs that make up a full job,” she says.
“I do the work of a full-time job in a part time situation in terms of time commitment.”
Influencing, she says, she started seven years ago before the pandemic forced her to rethink how she promoted her art.
“When I first started trying to create content, my primary platform was Instagram and I was just posting photos,” she says.
“But I got really frustrated with the process and the creative mindset around why I made decisions in my art and how it came to be wasn’t captured in just a photo and a caption”.
This led her to creating a TikTok account, where she was able to record her processes.
Hannah is a familiar face to the Murrumbateman community, where her mum owns a small
business.
“It has been a really big jump from being quite sheltered as a child, because I did a lot of homeschooling,” she says.
Despite her cosy upbringing, Hannah has already met some huge stars, including Guy Sebastion and YouTube millionaire, Mr Beast’s composer. Her latest invite brought her to Sydney to work with Apple for their 50th anniversary.
“By the grace of God, I’ve been able to go to these big things and work in these giant spaces, which I never thought I would,” she says.
Invited to attend a workshop at an Apple store in Sydney with several other artistic influencers, Hannah was given the opportunity to participate in a competition to have her art displayed on the Sydney Opera House. She never thought she would win.
“Everyone submitted their artwork and then it was made anonymous so that the decision was
purely made on the artwork,” she says.
Her big day didn’t quite go as planned, after the 26-year-old got stuck in severe traffic, making her late to the workshop.
“It was a whole kerfuffle,” she says.
“I got there super late and I sat in the back of the Apple Store for five hours on an iPad with a little model of the Opera House.”
What ensued was some of Hannah’s best work to date.
“I went home and a couple of days later, I got an email saying my artwork had been shortlisted, completely anonymously from entries across Australia,” she says.
“I went up to Sydney, and my artwork was projected for the anniversary.”
The only brief the artists were given was to create something they loved about Australia.
Hannah’s inspiration comes from the coast.
“I love coral reefs and I love snorkelling and surfing,” she says.
“I don’t get to go down there too often, but when I do, it’s a really lovely place.
“I feel really at peace at the ocean and calm when I’m looking at the sea and thinking about how small my life is in comparison to the rest of the ocean and the rest of the world.
“It was a lovely thing to be able to portray that in my art.”
Hannah’s particular art style plays with neon colours and different forms of lighting, which she worked into the coral while she played with different patterns. A giant whale took up the centre of her art.
The ocean, she says, continues to form a great part of her inspiration.
“I find it such an amazing thing to be at the coast and to be able to swim and snorkel and
see all these beautiful things that are right before us in God’s creation,” she says.
“It’s been awesome to see that and in a couple of other artworks and things, I’ve drawn inspiration from the ocean, but this was the first time that I really dedicated a piece to it.
“I’m really proud that it was able to go up on the Opera House for the world to see.”
Hannah has since been recognised formerly as the artist with more information about her piece available. It was displayed across the iconic building on the last weekend of March.
From here, she says she is keen to continue growing her art platform and practicing her skills.
“It is a really big step, which is awesome and I [will be] continuing to share my love of art with a lot of young people that are following me online,” she says.
“I would love to be able to take what I’m doing on an iPad to the rest of the world in more ways.
“I while ago, I started creating some 3D sketches of F1 helmets, where I get to design things that have real world applications that can be taken and printed [to be used] in really cool ways.”
Hannah’s goal list also includes working on murals and creating more things to be projected onto buildings, such as the displays created for Vivid and Enlighten.
“I would absolutely love to do Enlighten Canberra and create something really cool there or do some designs that people will be able to see every day and will bring them joy or spark some sort of emotional feeling within them,” she says.
“Yeah, I would love to be able to take what I’m doing online and bring it to more people in a physical way.”
Regardless of her following online, she says it was a magical opportunity to represent the community on such a large stage.
“I love Murrumbateman, it’s such a lovely, close-knit community,” she says.
“It’s lovely to know that I also have millions of people all over the world who are sharing in my art journey, but it’s really special when you get to see the people around you in your small country town celebrating alongside you.”
Hannah says she is particularly proud to show that anyone can do anything, even if they originate from humble origins, such as hers.
“You can go out and achieve whatever dreams and goal you have,” she says.
“So, it’s cool that I can represent my country town, and also Canberra, which most people don’t even know is the capital of Australia.”
To follow Hannah’s art and journey, visit her on Instagram, YouTube or TikTok at Pengoart.
– Elizabeth Kovacs
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