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Nature wonders of Victoria
Last year I was invited to create a conference bag design that showed some of the most-loved and/or unique native species of Victoria. It was for the Ecological Society of Australia's annual conference, which was held in Melbourne in December 2024. Apparently the...
Sketching at the Zoo
I recently treated myself to a whole day at the Melbourne Zoo, drawing animals. Seeing animals in captivity fills me with mixed feelings, but I tried to focus on the sheer wonder of each critter. I also respect the care and dedication shown by zoo staff - like this...
Tree hollows are animal homes #3 – Eucalypt Woodland south-eastern Australia
‘Tree hollows are animal homes’ is a new series of designs inspired by the relationship between the many Australian animal species that use hollows and the trees that provide them. This #3 design includes illustrations of 19 animal species that use hollows in the Eucalypt Woodlands of south-eastern Australia.
“This is my favourite book”
Last Sunday morning, I was minding my stall at the Beechmont Market. The day was bright, sunny, with a chilly western wind. A woman picked up a copy of my book ‘Stories from the Wildworld’.
She looked at me and said “This is my favourite book. I try to give away lots of books, but I just can’t bring myself to get rid of this one. It’s my favourite book”.
Do you have any idea how wonderful it is, for an author and illustrator, to hear those words?
Free colour-ins to download: Tree hollows are animal homes #1
I’m very excited to release some new colour-in sheets that I’ve created from the first ‘Tree hollows are animal homes’ design. Both colour-ins are free to download, and you are also welcome to make multiple copies of each to give away free.
New designs: Magpie Studies and Australian Kin
Two new designs have just been added to my Redbubble store: ‘Magpie studies’ and ‘Australian kin’.
Why 15-second owls are wonderful, and 12 important elements for teaching nature journaling
A chance encounter with an owl made me reflect on how I teach nature journaling. Here are 12 elements that I think are important.
A super-easy mini-book for exploring nature
I had a fabulous time last Saturday, immersing myself in the garden, and in this little art project. Big thanks to @wildinksketch for the inspiration!
This easy-to-make tiny book is another great way to nature journal. There’s something special and exciting about 3D paper creations. I can’t wait to teach this nature journaling approach to kids and adults ☺️
Gorgeous, fun & educational: New sticker sheets
Add some nature bling to your things, and brighten up your day 🙂
Tree hollows are animal homes #2
‘Tree hollows are animal homes’ is a new series of designs inspired by the relationship between the many Australian animal species that use hollows and the trees that provide them. This #2 design includes illustrations of 19 animal species that use hollows in the Eucalypt Tall Open Forests (also known as Wet Sclerophyll Forests) of south-eastern Australia.
Owls of Australia tea towels are here!
Just letting you know that my new ‘Owls of Australia’ design is now available as a tea towel. It includes all 10 species of owl that are found in Australia, plus a bonus Tawny Frogmouth (not an owl :)).
New workshop series: tickets on sale now!
I’m excited to offer a range of new, full-day nature journaling workshops this year. They’re for people who’d like to learn more about the botany, zoology and ecology of our marvellous Australian nature, while enjoying three beautiful outdoor locations…
Tales of Science
Leaf me alone! Are the Pink Slugs of Mt Kaputar pretending to be leaves?
21st February 2022, 6 pm The light is fading, and the wet stems of Ribbony Gums and Snow Gums are dark grey against a white overcast sky. The bare sloping rock face shines with water, water is sponged up by the verdant green mosses, and it saturates some fire-scorched...
The helpful and benignly addictive world of INaturalist.
The White-banded Hunter Hawkmoth, Theretra oldenlandiae The Navajo recognized and remembered over 700 different types of insects, to three levels of classification.1 Most of these insects did not have a practical ‘use’ for the Navajo (e.g. food). The vast majority of...
Spiky grubs, tiny bats and the giant stinging tree
Meet the punk caterpillar who's willing to take on some of Australia's most fearsome plants (the Gympie Stinger and Shiny-leaved Stinging Tree), and spends part of its life masquerading as a bat. In recent years it's also begun to devour the Giant Stinging Tree, in...
A Tale of Three Scrubwrens
Australia has an enormous variety of little brown birds. Some of these are scrubwrens, of the genus Sericornis (The name ‘Sericornis’ refers to the soft, silky plumage of these birds). Three species of Sericornis live in the forests of Lamington National Park, near my...
How do you describe a forest? (or woodland, shrubland, grassland…)
Forests are hard to describe. So much complexity, so much thriving life. Colours, light and forms change with the seasons, and over time. How to fit all that into words or pictures? The ways to describe a forest are infinite, and each approach will also be influenced...
Transitions
Recently, a friend told me that she was going to transition. From being a she to becoming a he. It’s something she’d wanted since puberty. I could hear the relief in her voice, and a happy anticipation of a new, precious and exciting life ahead. But many people find...
Nature journaling
Sketching at the Zoo
I recently treated myself to a whole day at the Melbourne Zoo, drawing animals. Seeing animals in captivity fills me with mixed feelings, but I tried to focus on the sheer wonder of each critter. I also respect the care and dedication shown by zoo staff - like this...
Why 15-second owls are wonderful, and 12 important elements for teaching nature journaling
A chance encounter with an owl made me reflect on how I teach nature journaling. Here are 12 elements that I think are important.
A super-easy mini-book for exploring nature
I had a fabulous time last Saturday, immersing myself in the garden, and in this little art project. Big thanks to @wildinksketch for the inspiration!
This easy-to-make tiny book is another great way to nature journal. There’s something special and exciting about 3D paper creations. I can’t wait to teach this nature journaling approach to kids and adults ☺️
New workshop series: tickets on sale now!
I’m excited to offer a range of new, full-day nature journaling workshops this year. They’re for people who’d like to learn more about the botany, zoology and ecology of our marvellous Australian nature, while enjoying three beautiful outdoor locations…
Delve deeper into Australian nature
Delve deeper into Australian nature New series of nature journaling workshops for 2024 In 2024 I’m very pleased to offer a series of whole-day nature journaling workshops, for those wishing to delve more deeply into the practice of nature journaling and learn...
Nature journaling Shakespeare’s plants
I'm very excited to announce 'Nature Journaling Shakespeare's Plants', four school holiday sessions for ages 8 to 16 years, at the lovely Brisbane Botanic Gardens, Mt Coot-tha. Discover and record some of Shakespeare’s favourite plants by creating your own nature...
Forest portraits
The scribbly gum woodland at Freshwater
Freshwater National Park smells burnt, but it looks lush green. I can hear the sleepy chortles of lorikeets, somewhere up in the bloodwoods. It’s late afternoon, on a hot January day. Maybe they’ve had too much sun, or too much nectar, or both. Scribbly gums rise like...
Nothofagus: a portrait of the Antarctic beech forest
Nothofagus, the southern beech, has always held a certain mystique for me. As a child I was an avid reader, and lived in an imaginary world. I was always searching for the forests of Middle Earth, Narnia and Sherwood. Stands of Nothofagus came much closer to this...
Enter the jungle – a portrait of wet rainforest
I explored my first rainforests when I was 14 years old and the experience probably changed my life. On a cold autumn morning at Binna Burra, I awaited the dawn bird walk, an enormous pair of very unsophisticated binoculars slung around my neck. Dingoes were howling...
Portrait of an endangered scribbly gum woodland
Drive from Brisbane to the Sunshine Coast, between the Glasshouse Mountains and Bribie Island, and you will pass through vast areas of exotic pine plantations. But it wasn't always this way. Once there were miles of scribbly gum woodlands with a diverse heathy...
Sunlight and shadows – a dry sclerophyll forest portrait
The most widespread and abundant forest type in Australia is probably dry sclerophyll forest - the tallest trees are eucalypts and their relatives (Corymbia, Angophora, Lophostemon), and below them are sparse shrubs, heath and/or grasses and herbs. This forest...
Blackbutt beasties, and forest portrait number two
Many beautiful beasties live in wet sclerophyll forest, including those that dwell or nest in the hollows of venerable old trees. Gliding possums that eat leaves, blossoms or trees sap; owls, tree-creepers and parrots; bats, snakes and antechinuses¹. As I started...
How to draw a forest (Part 2) – my first forest portrait
When it comes to doing art I’m largely self taught, so I always hesitate to call myself an artist. But I do like a challenge. Trying to draw forest portraits would require me to brush up on everything I had ever learnt about colour and tone and whatever else goes into...
How to draw a forest (Part 1) – or seeing the wood for the trees
Look for depictions of forests in art and you won’t find many. Sure, there are plenty of landscapes with trees. But look closer and you’ll notice there are only a few trees, probably to one side of the picture, and the rest is open country. Or it is a parkland, some...
Cartoons
New designs: Magpie Studies and Australian Kin
Two new designs have just been added to my Redbubble store: ‘Magpie studies’ and ‘Australian kin’.
Gorgeous, fun & educational: New sticker sheets
Add some nature bling to your things, and brighten up your day 🙂
An early morning adventure, featuring a very good boy
One of the lovely things about living in Beechmont is that we never really know what we're going to find on our early morning dog walk...
How we saved summer
A message of hope from the future. If you like this, please share!
A message from a Queensland koala
I’ve been thinking about what I’d like to do for wildlife conservation if I was still working for the government. And because I think that changing human behavior is absolutely essential for wildlife conservation… and because I’ve noticed this year that people seem to like cartoons… this is what I came up with. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Reasons to be cheerful
I’m finding it a bit hard to be cheerful these days. Heat, smoke, prolonged drought and more fires. Frustration at the lack of action on climate change, while its effects are becoming more and more obvious. My beloved Lamington National Park is still closed, so I can’t go and lose myself in its leafy depths. But life continues, in all its beauty. When I take the time to look about, and look closely, I find many reasons to be cheerful.
Impressions of Barambah
I visited the Barambah Environmental Education Centre (about 50 km west of Gympie, Queensland) back in August. I ran a nature journaling workshop for the staff, and did some field work for a series of illustrations for a little book about the centre. Here are some...
Beechmont Nature Journal 22nd September 2019
In this cartoon, spring has come to Beechmont, while Binna Burra has become like Shangri-la: mysterious and inaccessible.
Wildlife illustration
Nature wonders of Victoria
Last year I was invited to create a conference bag design that showed some of the most-loved and/or unique native species of Victoria. It was for the Ecological Society of Australia's annual conference, which was held in Melbourne in December 2024. Apparently the...
Tree hollows are animal homes #3 – Eucalypt Woodland south-eastern Australia
‘Tree hollows are animal homes’ is a new series of designs inspired by the relationship between the many Australian animal species that use hollows and the trees that provide them. This #3 design includes illustrations of 19 animal species that use hollows in the Eucalypt Woodlands of south-eastern Australia.
New designs: Magpie Studies and Australian Kin
Two new designs have just been added to my Redbubble store: ‘Magpie studies’ and ‘Australian kin’.
Tree hollows are animal homes #2
‘Tree hollows are animal homes’ is a new series of designs inspired by the relationship between the many Australian animal species that use hollows and the trees that provide them. This #2 design includes illustrations of 19 animal species that use hollows in the Eucalypt Tall Open Forests (also known as Wet Sclerophyll Forests) of south-eastern Australia.
Owls of Australia tea towels are here!
Just letting you know that my new ‘Owls of Australia’ design is now available as a tea towel. It includes all 10 species of owl that are found in Australia, plus a bonus Tawny Frogmouth (not an owl :)).
‘Mount Kaputar: A living volcano’ – free ebook to download
I'm really pleased to announce the release of my sixth colouring book: Mount Kaputar: A living volcano, a collaboration with Adam Fawcett, Shannon Greenfields and James Faris. This book was developed in partnership with Saving our Species, New South Wales Department...