A little over 2 years of being in Sydney, that longing to reconnect with my culture and connect with the Filipino/Asian diaspora started niggling at me. I realised why it’s called “homesickness” because yes, you really do feel physically and mentally ill over missing home. It wasn’t just because I wanted to badly go home to the Motherland, it was this whisper of grief that I’m going to be physically distanced from my roots and apprehension over having my daughter soon not remember her own.
I found Magenta House through a common friend and I immediately knew I needed to reach out to collaborate on something, anything. And so I met the beautiful Mariam Ella Arcilla, effervescent housekeeper of the ultra cool safe space called Magenta House in Redfern and we just clicked — not just because we both love art, all things whimsical and have the need to be silly or we will combust, but because Mariam and I truly want to build and cultivate a thriving community of like-minded people, sharing a deep love for art and culture.
The Halo-Halo Watercolour Workshop was born and it has seen the tide of all four seasons in Sydney, and a wave of wonderfully colourful students who were there to learn art, have a sugary and cold cup of our Filipino dessert and like us, ones who strongly craved community and belongingness.
The class starts with learning the basics of watercolour based off of my knowledge over the last 30 odd years as an artist, we then build our own Halo-Halo and get to paint our creation. We create two works of art — one in a cup that eventual goes into our tummies and one on paper that everyone can take home.
The Halo-Halo Watercolour workshop kit is the first kit that I made that soon became the building block for all my other watercolour workshops. Hours spent composing a manual that continues to inpire even when my students get home, scouring good-quality materials that I personally use and handcrafting each element (like my sample cards of Holbein paints) was all worth it. I loved seeing everyone’s surprise knowing they can take everything home too!
Mariam puts so much heart into curating and building an array of ingredients for a delightful Halo-Halo cup, using traditional ingredients and seasonal fruits. Every cup is unique to each individual, unique to every season. The amount of care that Mariam puts in preparing for everything feels like a warm hug.
Since starting our seasonal Halo-Halo Watercolour workshop, my own world in Sydney expanded in ways I never could have imagined. I was happy to have interweaved a tapestry of friends from my hometown of Cebu with friends I’ve met in Sydney. I’ve met wonderful creatives who have become friends and collaborators in life post-workshop — Mister Roho, who took these beautiful photos of our most recent workshop episode in Autumn of 2026, was one of my students in 2025.
The Halo-Halo Watercolour workshop not only allowed my world to grow, it’s also allowed me to honour my dad in a way that only my art could. Every workshop is a dedication to my dad — to the random Halo-Halo dates with the family or just us, to dad’s Halo-Halo special order that comes in a bigger bowl with 2 flavours of ice cream, to him taking me to my first intensive art class when I was 8 and getting to learn watercolour, to him who always pushed me to follow whatever passion and hyper-fixations I had. To my dad who is always loved, you are in every cup, every brush stroke, every artwork.
It feels bittersweet writing this because the Autumn workshop may be my last in Sydney for some time but I want everyone who has participated to know, you have brought so much colour to my life here.
To Mariam (& Mason), thank you for opening your home to me, to all of us. Thank you for opening your world and embracing me into your community. Thank you for holding my hand through all of this. Please visit Cebu again.
