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Springtime in the forest, and a Hunter Valley workshop
Rain seems to be the essence of springtime this year in Beechmont. After an early dry start, the almost continuous rain and showers have conjured up carpets of pinkish new raspy fern fronds, a flush of tender bright green leaves in the rainforest (and many blushing...
‘She didn’t need much’ wins nature writing prize
My little story about a squirrel glider has been awarded equal first prize in the inaugural Brisbane City Council Nature Writing competition. Yay! She didn't need much was first posted on this blog in July 2016, and you can read the full story below. Thanks to the...
Meet the rainforest neighbours
Nearly 3 weeks ago I planned to draw A plant a day for a week. Part meditation, part nature journaling, part learning new species. Well, life got in the way, as it does. I didn't draw a plant every day. I didn't always stick to my own rules. Sometimes I got frustrated...
A plant a day
What would happen if the first thing people did every day was contemplate nature? Well I know there are certain things that might need to be done first, like visiting the bathroom, getting dressed, having a caffeine hit, etc. (What’s your morning ritual?). But what...
Tallowwood forest
30 September 2017 The dark green teeth of the prickly rasp ferns wave upwards in the warm northerly breeze, up from the dry crunchy litter of curled eucalypt leaves, and the twigs that spring and snap when you walk. A pile of kindling, ready for the merest drifting...
Red Centre adventures, plus more nature journaling dates
Yay, I finally made it to the Northern Territory! And the Central Australian landscapes were sublime. So much colour and beauty, at every scale: from the mountains, through to the patterns of the vegetation, and right down to the individual animals, rocks and plants....
Nature Journaling for Gardeners
Nature journaling is another great way to enjoy gardens - either your own little green space, or the gardens of others. As I've written elsewhere, nature journaling is fun and relaxing, it sharpens your powers of observation, and it's a doorway to learning new things....
The Selfish Tree
“Sometimes people ask me,” said the Blue Gum*, “Don’t you mind when the termites hollow out your innards, your limbs drop, the parrots chew your skin to make new holes, the moths and beetles tunnel into your wood, and the cicadas suck your sap?” “Yes I sometimes...
Drawing birds in Adelaide
Last week I was in South Australia, visiting family and friends. I had also embarked on compiling some nature journals 'on a theme', including one on birds, and one on gardens. The garden journal I'll show you in a future post, but today's post is about the little...
Playing with watercolour pencils
Watercolour pencils are great for nature journaling, since they combine the accuracy of a pencil with the vibrant colour and flexibility of watercolour pigment. But I've found them tricky to use because the colour of the pencil applied dry to the paper can change a...
Dipping into the Murray-Darling wetlands
River Red Gums, raucous with white corellas screaming from their upper branches, their gnarled trunks splashed grey-and-cream, rise up out of a flooded wetland. The water is strewn with green wetland plants, and smeared yellow with floating pollen. Ducks and moorhens...
Happily evaporating in the mangroves
The mangrove kingfisher looked thin - its feathers were flattened against its body. It sort of drooped on the branch. Tail down, beak open, wings held away from the body. And see the wobbly end of its beak? That's not really what the bird looked like, that's me. Hands...
Tales of Science
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Nature journaling
Springtime in the forest, and a Hunter Valley workshop
Rain seems to be the essence of springtime this year in Beechmont. After an early dry start, the almost continuous rain and showers have conjured up carpets of pinkish new raspy fern fronds, a flush of tender bright green leaves in the rainforest (and many blushing...
Meet the rainforest neighbours
Nearly 3 weeks ago I planned to draw A plant a day for a week. Part meditation, part nature journaling, part learning new species. Well, life got in the way, as it does. I didn't draw a plant every day. I didn't always stick to my own rules. Sometimes I got frustrated...
A plant a day
What would happen if the first thing people did every day was contemplate nature? Well I know there are certain things that might need to be done first, like visiting the bathroom, getting dressed, having a caffeine hit, etc. (What’s your morning ritual?). But what...
Tallowwood forest
30 September 2017 The dark green teeth of the prickly rasp ferns wave upwards in the warm northerly breeze, up from the dry crunchy litter of curled eucalypt leaves, and the twigs that spring and snap when you walk. A pile of kindling, ready for the merest drifting...
Red Centre adventures, plus more nature journaling dates
Yay, I finally made it to the Northern Territory! And the Central Australian landscapes were sublime. So much colour and beauty, at every scale: from the mountains, through to the patterns of the vegetation, and right down to the individual animals, rocks and plants....
Nature Journaling for Gardeners
Nature journaling is another great way to enjoy gardens - either your own little green space, or the gardens of others. As I've written elsewhere, nature journaling is fun and relaxing, it sharpens your powers of observation, and it's a doorway to learning new things....
Forest portraits
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Cartoons
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Wildlife illustration
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...