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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 :)).

A super-easy mini-book for exploring nature

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 ☺️

Tales of Science

The helpful and benignly addictive world of INaturalist.

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

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

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...

Transitions

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

A super-easy mini-book for exploring nature

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!

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

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

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...

Unleash your creativity with this simple handmade book

Unleash your creativity with this simple handmade book

A simple concertina book can be a great way to record your next holiday, road trip or nature journaling adventure.

I’ve also found that simple concertina books can unlock inspiration in kids and adults when a flat blank journal page may be too daunting or dull. Perhaps it’s the tactile nature of these books, the way that people tend to open and close them, and look at them from all angles, that stimulates different neural pathways in the brain.

A simple concertina book is essentially just a strip of robust paper (high GSM watercolour paper or mixed media paper works well) that is folded to form multiple small pages. But it feels like a little book, that unfolds alluringly, to tell a story….

Forest portraits

The scribbly gum woodland at Freshwater

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: 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

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

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...

Blackbutt beasties, and forest portrait number two

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

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...

Cartoons

A message from a Queensland koala

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

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

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 14th September 2019

Beechmont Nature Journal 14th September 2019

A cartoon about last weekend’s unprecedented fire at Binna Burra. It’s wobbly because that’s how I feel right now. But all around our house the birds are singing and I heard a koala bellow just before I posted this. So life goes on, and I’m hopeful for the future.

Wildlife illustration

Tree hollows are animal homes #2

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!

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 :)).

Free Dynamic Lagoons colouring book to download

Free Dynamic Lagoons colouring book to download

I’m thrilled to announce a new colouring book about Australian wildlife. Dynamic Lagoons: Colour the world of the upland wetlands celebrates the wonderful ‘Upland wetlands of the drainage divide of the New England Tableland Bioregion’ an ecosystem that is listed as threatened at State and National level.

New ‘Gondwana Rainforest Birds’ tea towel design

New ‘Gondwana Rainforest Birds’ tea towel design

The new Gondwana Rainforest Birds tea towel design has just landed in the Paperbark Writer store. It features close-up ‘portraits’ of 15 native birds species found in the Gondwana Rainforests World Heritage Area that spans parts of south east Queensland and north east...