For Miranda Darling and Nick Tobias, art collecting is both a reflection of their partnership and an ongoing extension of their respective creative lives.

By ChloÉ Wolifson FEB 2017

When author Miranda Darling and architect Nick Tobias and their two young children, nine-year-old Samson and seven-year-old Griffin, moved 12 months ago from a traditional house with many rooms (and walls) in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs
to the contemporary, open-plan Bondi-beachside home they designed, they took about 80 artworks with them — and managed to hang them all. However the collection, which continues to grow, is more than the sum of its parts, driven by intuitive, personal choices that bring a variety of personalities into the family’s home.

Darling, who is currently writing a book on a secret art collection that’s been buried for 30 years, finds herself drawn towards figurative works, perhaps reflective of the characters she shapes in the pages of her own works. Tobias, viewing the world through an architect’s eyes, considers art to have the power to colour and animate interior spaces, and the lives that inhabit them.

How did art collecting become a part of your lives?
Nick: For me, collecting started around the age of 22. A passionate collector decided to take me by the ear and drag me ‘round the galleries on Saturdays, and explain to me what good, challenging, interesting contemporary art was. So I suppose I got the bug. She introduced me to Neil Smith, an artist who was about my age, and got the two of us sitting down, looking through his process diary, talking about ideas, creative process and inspiration, which led to a commissioned work from him, my first ... Subscribe to read this article in full