4 min read

August update

A hand holds out a watercolour landscape painting in a sketchbook with the same view behind of a wetland, with a boardwalk.
Plein air painting at Herdsman Lake Discovery Centre.

It's been a little while since I've written or created any videos and it's also the 2 year anniversary of my YouTube channel, so what's been happening?

Nature journaling in France

Most recently I was on holiday in France for a month (there's a post coming soon about travel journaling based on that) and since I returned I've been working casually at the Herdsman Lake Discovery Centre. Earlier this year I ran a beginner's nature journaling workshop there and have since been working more closely with the lovely WA Gould League team. It feels like a perfect fit for both the centre and myself - the centre is a fantastic place to run nature journaling events and with my science and education background I love helping out with school excursions, walks and visitors. So, if you're in Perth, keep an eye out for more nature journaling events such as this one during the upcoming school holidays:

Creative Nature Journaling for Kids! | WA Gould League
Funky fonts, punny titles and artistic additions will make these nature journaling pages lots of fun to make!

Although I am only working casually it has eaten away at more of my time than anticipated and it's been the YouTube channel that took the hit. Perhaps because I was out of practice from being on holiday, I've not yet been able to set aside the dedicated time to edit the next video (Rottnest salt lakes). There have also been other happenings and visits that disrupt any sense of flow or routine I'm trying to establish since I moved house in May. However, I do believe things are settling down now and I should hopefully get back on track with my posting schedule again soon.

I mentioned in my last year's review that I was going to be opening commissions - and while I haven't opened them to the public yet, I have been working on private ones this year. I'd like to complete the remaining ones before opening up for public commissions, probably in 2024 - watch this space!

A sunset landscape, my first commission (A3 watercolour).

My nature journaling practice has also slowed down - I started a perpetual nature journal in June and will attempt this week to get that habit started again. With the weather warming up for spring recently I've definitely been itching to nature journal and record what's happening this Noongar season, Djilba. I'd like to get as close as possible to doing some daily nature journaling (@hashiworks is a great inspiration here).

Perpetual nature journal entry from June

Coming up

As for what's coming up - quite a bit!

  • September 13-17: The Wild Wonder conference is nearly here. I usually watch the video recordings later though, since the Perth time zone is possibly the worst to attend live 😫.
  • September 17: I will be running a nature journaling workshop for The City of Kwinana at their Wildflower Walk event - if you're interested sign up here:
Nature Journaling Workshop
Discover the world of Nature through Nature Journaling
  • September 23-25: At the end of the month I will be attending the Plein Air Down Under festival again. One of my goals this year was to improve my plein air landscapes and I have been working on them, so we shall see how it compares to last year!
  • October: Next month (already?!) is Inktober and I do have an idea for how to approach it, but it might not be a daily challenge for me this year. Hopefully I don't skip it altogether (like Plein Airpril this year, it just disappeared before my eyes).

I hope you are able to get out and do some nature journaling wherever you are.

Thank you for your continued support on my website, YouTube channel, Ko-fi shop and Instagram despite the recent quiet period. 😊