The Joy of Creative Challenge
Newsletter 71
Greetings wonderful people, I hope you’ve had a lovely month. Today I want to chat a little about the joy of being a beginner at something, especially as an Adult! This month I’ve thrown myself in the deep end by jumping into a bunch of different classes to learn things I know very little about.
Ukulele! After seeing the Hills Ukulele Ensemble perform at and InkPot Arts open day, I took the plunge and signed up for beginner ukulele classes with my friend Max Tulysewski. I’m loving spending cold evenings practising my songs and noticing how quickly I’m improving (just in a few weeks)! I might just serenade you with a little song in my VLOG.
Botanical drawing in coloured pencil. I’m not normally one for regimented realism, but I loved the class I took the other day with Sandra Johnston at The Cedars. We used buttery soft prismacolour pencils and I’ve fallen in love with the medium! Naturally, I’ve bought myself a set and am enjoying all the resulting art ideas.
Landscape oil painting with Jane Mant. This class (also at The Cedars) was also an unprecedented delight! It was one of the last warm(ish) autumn days and it was gorgeous sitting amongst the fallen autumn leaves learning about colour mixing. I’m not super pleased with the outcome of my painting, but I thoroughly enjoyed the process.
Dancing! I’m having lots of fun warming up on these cold winter days to newly released songs by our band The Norbu Pellets (more about this below).
It’s a very humbling experience to learn like a child again, I’m up to Day 80 in my ‘Left-Hand Drawing’ challenge and I’m loving seeing what my hand produces when it’s not shackled by the restraints of what-I-think-my-art-should-look-like! See some more of my left handed drawings and other creative pursuits from this month (including our new bathroom door mural in this blog post.
VLOG
Dancing to ‘Sandwiches for Eyes’ and a dodgy ukulele version of ‘Let It Be’.
What I’m Listening To
I’m excited to announce the release of the first album from my band The Norbu Pellets. My parter and sister are the main brains behind the genius that is Made In Böög Land, but you’ll hear me in the odd piano accordion solo or backing vocal. This album was a creative collaboration in the most fun way possible. We get together and write random lyrics then paste them together with music. It’s a very diverse album (and child friendly)… I hope you love it as much as we loved making it! Listen on bandcamp.
Art Classes
My homeschool class at Norton Summit this term is completely awesome. In gushing delight, I created a couple of blog posts outlining the classes. These are good teaching resources and include some free how-to-draw sheets and colouring pages. See the blog posts on Australian Megafauna, Echidnas and Rainbow Lorikeets.
Australian Megafauna
Megafauna literally means ‘big animals’, animals with body mass of at least 40kg. People might think of Ice Age; sabre-toothed tigers and wooly mammoths, but did you know that equally impressive giant animals lived in Australia during that time. After the dinosaurs died out (65 million years ago), many of the remaining birds, reptiles and mammals slowly …
Echidna Drawing and Painting
Hello gorgeous humans! I had a few students who were unable to make it to my homeschool class this morning, so I thought I’d share this little min-lesson so that you can do the class at home! Download the drawing boxes and how to draw sheet to print out or reference on your computer.
Rainbow Lorikeet Painting
Yesterday I hosted a delightful painting session in the gardens of The Cedars (former residence of Hans Heysen in Hahndorf (Adelaide Hills). I’ve been teaching regular classes here, and every time I enter the garden a wave of calm spreads over me. Hans Heysen seems to have been a pretty awesome guy, his paintings truly capture the magic of the Australia…
I’ll be making more posts in the Teaching Resources section of my Substack, so make sure you’re subscribed if you want to join in on the fun!
Classes Coming Up
July 9 (10-11.30am) Anthropomorphic Trees at The Cedars
July 14 (2-4pm) Step-by-Step Birds of the Cedars
August 10 (2-4pm) Winter Flowers with Wine and Nibbles at The Cedars
Australian Animal A-Z Book
This month’s Aussie Animal blog post/podcast is on the Cuttlefish (just in time for Cuttlefest)! Check out the blog post.
C is for Cuttlefish
Hello beautiful people and welcome to Lesson 3 of ‘Aussie Animals’. I’m often shocked by how little people know about Australia’s animals. Of course, everyone knows about Kangaroos and Koalas… but what about an Antechinus or Mulgara? Living in a country that’s caused the extinction of more animals than any other nation (
Hills Winter Lantern Festival
The Hills Winter Lantern Festival is coming up on the 15th of June. As always, I adore being part of the festival (as I have been for the past eight years). In the lead up to the festival, we’ve been working with the year 3’s at Echunga Primary School to make some lanterns for the parade. What amazed me was that the children we’re working with weren’t even born when we started the event.
This year, most of the normal grants we applied for fell through and we were left with a very mini-budget that will barely cover the hire of toilets etc. We’re volunteering a lot of our time to make this event happen, and would really appreciate some support. If you’ve been to the festival before or simply love small artist-run events, we’d really appreciate and donation you could give (even if it’s just $5). You can donate here.
See some of the cool environmental sculpture we’ve been working on here.
Fabulous Freebie
Last month I gave away a colouring sheet of some snuggling koalas, so it’s only natural that this month you can colour these snuggling kangaroos (a nice colouring activity by the fire). 😊
With love and a dose of whimsy,
Zinia
I loved the song your partner and sister created, and your album art goes so well with it! I still remember drawing with our left hand at uni, that was such a challenge but I actually found it so helpful to break free from drawing block! It's definitely a good tool!