Go into the draw to win this set of four botanical greeting cards with envelopes worth $27.80.
To enter, just click here or reply to the January newsletter email and tell me what is one art skill you’d like to pick up in 2026. Easy as pie!
We have three winners this month of prize draws for archival quality prints of my painting Seven Sisters - Knightia excelsa. This painting was selected for Botanical Art Worldwide in 2018.
Our three print winners this month are:
Alison Walbutton, entered at Taranaki Garden Festival
Rhi Munro,entered at Cutting Edge, Rotorua
Karen Franken, entered at Highwic Sweetpea Festival
Alison, Rhi and Karen, please email me your postal address and I will get your print to you! I hope you enjoy your print.
If you’d like to go in or this month’s draw to win a set of gift cards send me an email here or to jduvalsmith@gmail.com and let me know what skill you’d like to work on this year.
(Or, what to do when you don’t know what to do!)
Last week, in practicing what I preach, I took part in an online workshop and it was such a tonic and an energiser!
Lucia Leyfield of Wild Ink is an English artist and illustrator I have followed for a while. Lucia is a very charming and encouraging proponent of ‘box journaling’ as a low pressure way to use your sketchbook and step around creative blocks and procrastination.
Just grab a pencil and your sketchbook, it really doesn’t matter what kind, A5 is just fine. Lightly rule your page up into blocks, Lucia uses 12 per page, I prefer 8 larger blocks.
Choose a photo from your camera roll and sketch it very simply. If an image works better over two blocks I join them up landscape or portrait.
I prefer to add some watercolour but Lucia uses coloured pencils and watercolour pencils, and it’s worth doing the workshop to hear her talk about how she chooses a limited palette.
You can just do one square at a time with your cup of tea in front of TV or all in one arty session. There are no rules.
Over time this builds up to a really fun visual mosaic or record of the things you enjoyed over that month. If one drawing isn’t great it really doesn’t matter.
You might stick with one topic, say your garden or botanicals, or you could branch out into people, projects or trips. I especially love including overhead phrases or vocabulary. Give it a go and do let me know how you get on!
Workshops are a great way to challenge yourself and nudge your skills forward. Have a look at some workshops I’m running this year to see if anything floats your boat.
Join me for a workshop that will guide you to draw a beautiful botanical subject with clarity, accuracy, and confidence. You’ll explore simple yet powerful nature journaling prompts and learn accessible techniques for capturing natural detail, skills that will enrich any creative practice.
All materials are provided, and no previous experience is needed. Whether you’re picking up a pencil for the first time or already comfortable with your craft, the techniques taught in this class will meet you where you are.
We begin in the elegantly restored Auckland Wintergardens before moving to a behind-the-scenes location at the Domain Nursery. There, you’ll have the opportunity to observe and record exquisite plant specimens specially curated for our group by the Wintergardens expert team.
Your workshop fee includes:
A three-hour botanical art workshop with personalised guidance
Morning tea and coffee
All materials, including paper, pencils, clipboard, watercolour pencils, and brushes
A donation to Friends of the Domain in recognition of their generous support
One-off Sunday morning workshops
It’s back and available to book online!
Choose from a series of eight separately bookable three-hour workshops, working with glorious plants selected for us by the expert team of Wintergardens curators.
We have a combination of old favourites plus some fresh new options to consider - roses or citrus anybody?!
Workshop details
• Tickets $129 incl GST for one three hour botanical art workshop
• No previous experience required to enjoy yourself
• All materials supplied
If you’ve decided that this is the year for botanical art, there are a lot of different ways to learn, and these can be combined effectively to move yourself forward. Here are some thoughts I’ve had in choosing course for myself and advising others.
Click through here for the course I currently have available to book
One-off classes - a great way to test things out.
Doing a ‘taster class’ or one-off workshop is a great way to find your preferred style or learning approach before you commit to a course or investing in all the materials. Some are focussed on a level such as basic skills for beginners, others are focussed on a technique ‘colour mixing’ or a certain plant. No matter what, you’ll always learn something new and helpful. I never expect to leave with a completed work, but some of the unfinished efforts I have made at workshops have taught me the most.
Ongoing courses - learn and consolidateIf you are able to dedicate a couple of hours of ‘me time’ per week, an ongoing course offers the chance to learn a skill one week and put it into practice and consolidate it the next week. Often people start an artistic activity with a level of anxiety but in a longer course will start to really explore and blossom. I don’t set homework but encourage people to practice their own work outside class as they are able to apply their new skills and progress so much faster. They can also offer really useful insights to others in the class.
Online courses - learn at your own place and pace There has be an explosion in online schools - we no longer have to travel to Europe to receive instruction from botanical art gurus. Many have supportive communities or Patreon sites with weekly challenges. Most offer a free tutorial on Youtube so you can double-check whether you enjoy following them before you commit your hard earned cash. Although you may enjoy the aesthetic style of an artist, you’ll also want to make sure their teaching method, medium or painting method aligns works for you. A key advantage is that you can stop and start the videos to follow along to learn a technique. One thing to check, is whether or not the teacher will offer you personal feedback. That’s something I always find invaluable.
Personally the painters I find most rewarding to follow, use a lot of wet-in-wet in their earlier layers and not too much dry brushing, such as Sandrine Maugy, Julia Trickey and Egle Kolev who all offer excellent insight on technique and colour theory.
In person classes for a fun and supportive experience Making art doesn’t have to be lonely. Learning together offers a totally different dynamic. In class there’s always the chance to receive personal feedback and to learn from other students as well as the teacher. Group classes are not just fun, they’re also a great way to discover that we all produce different art from the same subject matter, we all learn at a different pace and, in my opinion, that’s the joy of it.
If you have any questions about your experience level, the best way to start, or develop your botanical art, reply to this email and I’d be happy to chat through what might work best for you.
It turns out that planning for creativity is not a contradiction in terms - quite the opposite in fact!
Over the last four years I have moved from corporate worker-bee to full time painting and helping other people to find their own artistic confidence. I feel so lucky to be on this path filled with challenge, beautiful plants and lovely people.
Un-coincidentally, every year for the last four years, my friend Emma and I have met in her garage for what we call ‘The Glorias’. This is a simple and effective way to guide your year.
Here’s one proven method for setting up your year for your version of success:
Book a fun and supportive friend. You can do it on your own but it’s more fun with a friend
Set out three large sheets of paper headed with three questions:
What am I proud of this year?
What did I learn?
What do I want to be proud of in 2026?
Raise the energy levels with a loud 80s banger such as Laura Brannigan’s ‘Gloria’ and bop about like an idiot (essential)
Grab a stack of sticky notes and write as many answers as you can.
Stick those answers on the appropriate sheet
When you’re both finished, run through your answers with your friend. They will usually have a clarifying question or useful contribution to make.
Finally, we ask “Which word would I like to inspire and guide my decision making in 2026?"
A simple summary of intentions from this session to really helps make the right decisions and avoid overwhelm and decision fatigue. You can laminate it if you’re addicted to office products.
I am sadly structure-intolerant and usually feel I must reinvent the wheel, which absorbs a huge amount of energy. But my creative energy is limited. So ‘structure’ is my very aspirational word for 2026.
I hope this helps you if you’re looking for direction and to make positive change. Try it and see if it works. For more detail on how to run your own session you can listen to Emma’s brilliant breakdown on her podcast here - you’re in for a treat. If you already do a planning session like this I’d love to hear how you do it too.
If you’d like this seasonal newsletter emailed directly to you, subscribe here and I’ll send it direct to your inbox
A seriously lovely giveaway
plus the final workshops for the year!
Don’t miss out!
Hello again creative friends, and welcome to my Spring Newsletter! Thanks for following along on my, erm, artistic journey, I’ve got some lovely things in store for you:
The perfect giveaway
A ’retro’ recommendation to help you invite more creativity into your life
Workshop places open at Auckland Wintergardens
Workshop places open at Taranaki Garden Festival
WIP of the month and a free exhibition to visit
A little bit of press
The perfect giveaway - It’s a win/win!
Have you put your name in yet for a chance to win this absolutely super giveaway? The prize is a lovely archival-quality Kakabeak print, one of my most popular, plus this very nice set of handcrafted earrings made by my fab friend Isla, at Wearing Glass? The package is worth $173.00. Lordy!
As backstory, Isla and I got know each other as fellow archery mums on the sidelines watching our offspring play Robin Hood at Cornwall Park. I first got my own pair of these gorgeous earrings by swapping socks I had made for her. I l do love a creative swap! So next we hatched this collaboration. I get heaps of compliments on these earrings and they are very light and pleasant to wear. I’m really looking forward to seeing who wins!
Check it out here and get your entry in before midnight on Friday 27 September.
How to invite more creativity into your life
Not to get too ‘woo’ about it but I firmly believe creativity in our lives isn’t just confined to a specific art form or expression, it’s part of how we are and how we live, fuelled by our energy and attention. So I’m always looking for ways to improve my focus and tune up the creative frequency. One of the best ways I have found to do this, admittedly quite retro, is a programme called The Artist’s Way. If you’re not familiar, do not worry, it’s not an MLM, or a cult, It’s a book written by writer Julia Cameron way back in 1993 to help screenwriters rescue themselves from writer’s block. You can find the book for a couple of dollars at any second-hand book store or buy it new here.
Effectively it’s a 12 week programme of morning writing and weekly outings to provoke and revive your creativity. You can do it on your own or with a circle of similarly minded others. I like to write first thing in the morning before the dreams have dribbled out of my ears. Parts of the process are are quite personally challenging but I really can recommend it as a discipline and a structured approach for personal exploration.
I’m about four weeks in so far, and I have to say the results really are quite surprising. Things that seemed difficult are suddenly much easier. Boundaries with myself and others are slightly easier to keep and help has sprung up from quite unexpected people (including one of my sons beginning to clear 25 years of junk from the shed which will become my studio!). Psycho-somatic? Coincidence? Who cares? I really want that studio space!
Wintergardens workshops
It has gone so quickly - just two Wintergardens workshops left this year! One of the best things about these workshops is that we get to work with specimens which are not ordinarily available to the public. So if you have a specific interest in these types of plants it’s a great opportunity. Equally, the skills you will learn at these workshops will transfer to drawing any other subject.
Learn to draw Cacti and Succulents - Just 5 seats left for our upcoming workshop! Don't wait—snag your spot now by clicking here and unleash your inner artist!
Date: Sunday, 20 October 10am—1pm, Auckland Domain Wintergardens
Learn to draw Carnivorous Plants: if you're feeling extra lucky, there’s only 1 seat left in our exclusive Carnivorous plants workshop! If you're ready to dive in, grab that last seat here before it vanishes!
Date: Sunday, 17 November, 10am-1pm, Auckland Domain Wintergardens
I always like to check if I am on the right track, and had this really nice feedback from a recent group of workshop attendees:
“Jolly, informative, Impassioned and talented tutor”
“The best course I have found so far to teach you the basics, how to approach drawing which is the most important when you are a complete beginner”
“Lovely teaching style! Easy to follow, very fun”
“Excellent teaching, just the right amount of detail and encouragement”
Taranaki Garden Festival workshops
I‘m back at stunning Riverlea garden again this year and with luck the ladies from Little Liberty Creamery will be right beside me once more. I have to ration myself to one per day but I’m still thinking about their intense espresso flavour!
The remaining workshop tickets are:
Your grandmother’s garden – revisiting plants of our past One seat left!
Date – Fri 1 Nov, 11am- 2pm, , Riverlea Garden Bell Block, Taranaki
Capture a native forest leaf with confidence Just four seats left
Date – Sun 3 Nov, 11am – 2pm , Riverlea Garden Bell Block, Taranaki
As with all of my workshops, all materials are provided and no experience is required. All you need to do is turn up, relax and enjoy yourself.
WIP of the month and a roadie!
I was rapt to be asked to join a group of artists with Sandra Morris and the Pūkorokoro Miranda Shorebird Centre to raise funds for local wetland preservation.
The painting below “Pūkorokoro Tideline” is my response to this call to action. My piece features natural objects I found along the shellbank, reflecting a scientific tideline sample and celebrating the ordinary treasures of this fragile ecosystem. Each specimen tells a part of the story, both commonplace and wonderfully unique.
The images I painted in my journal last May evoke vivid memories of hot sun-bleached shells crunching underfoot, the salty tang of mangroves, and that thrilling sense of imminent discovery I always feel along the tideline.
The original is for sale at the exhibition Wetland: Pūkorokoro runs at Miranda Gallery from September 29 to October 20, 2024. Miranda Gallery is about 10 minutes’ drive from the Shorebird Centre and you could easily pop into both on a day out and drive that beautiful winding coastline home. The Shorebird Centre is a wonderful place to drop into, with an incredible selection of books on naturalist subjects for sale. You could always pick your lunch up at Clevedon Market if you’re going for the ultimate trifecta. Otherwise fish and chips at the pink shop at Kaiaua is the traditional alternative!
FYI I’m also offering archival quality signed limited edition prints of this work, with 20% going to the wetland preservation fund. A4 prints are $75 and A3 prints are $150. Let me know if you’re interested! As well as supporting a local artist, you’d be making a contribution to wetland preservation!
A little bit of press!
And if you haven’t had enough of me talking about me (!) I was recently interviewed by Megan Lyon for Nourish Magazine for the very same Spring issue which features my fennel painting on its cover. Look out for Nourish all over the Waikato and the BOP. The recipes are absolutely reliable.
One of the best and somehow unexpected parts of this, ahem ‘mature career pivot’ into botanical art is the opportunity to meet creative people whose values and enthusiasm align really closely. So I really enjoyed the chance to spend a bit more time with Nourish Publisher Vicki Ravlich-Horan. As well as publishing Nourish Magazine and doing spontaneous photoshoots, Vicki also runs incredible foodie tours to Siciliy, Mexico and Sri Lanka. One day, I swear I’ll be eating pastry in Sicily with the rest of you!
Thanks for allowing me into your inbox
I hope there’s been something in this newsletter for you. Do send me your comments! Let me know if you have any questions at all for the next one. And as always, if it’s not for you, simply unsubscribe any time, no hard feelings.
Ngā mihi nui,
Jennifer
PS Don’t forget to enter the giveaway - you could well win! Check it out here and get your entry in before midnight on Friday 27 September.
Click through to sign up. for my winter solstice newsletter which is out now! This edition outlines four ways you can invite more creativity into your life and lists a raft of frewarding workshops and events you can attend - one of completely free!. Feel free to
unsubscribe any time
This is my “bare minimum” kit which I have used on the Routeburn Track, on airplanes and at many quite dull sporting events. It’s light enough to fit in my handbag for spur of the moment sketching but makes no compromises on pigment quality, which is where I draw the line.
Essential elements:
An A5 sketchbook with thick pages which won’t warp with a wet wash. This is a Winsor Newton one from the junk shop in Greymouth. The pages are a bit rough tbh, but you can order a nice Stillman and Bern softcover with smooth pages for $35. On sale at Hobbyland here for $26 btw. Think about whether you’d prefer landscape or portrait orientation, mine is landscape. Also you might prefer a spiral bound so you can flip the back around 360 degrees without cracking the spine like I have here.
A light cheap mechanical HB pencil with a refillable 0.5 lead. This one is light and fine enough for me. Perfectionists might want to go to a .3, but I find them a bit snappy as I’m heavy-handed.
A small palette: this is a Schmincke Horadam palette mostly filled with my favourite Winsor Newton shades and a small splotch of Daniel Smith Moonglow because friends let friends share pigments (thanks Lesley Alexander!). If you’re starting out, a Schmincke Horadam or Winsor Newton basic half pan palette will see you right. As you learn what you like, you can buy empty palettes and half pans and fill them from tubes as I have. If you’d like a list of my essential pigments then email me back and I’m happy to send it to you. If you think you’ll do a bit of painting and can afford artist quality then that is much better value for money. They last forever, are bright, and aren’t adulterated with chalky fillers. Alternatively you could take a bunch of watercolour pencils if that’s your jam.
My dot paint swatch: My best basic ‘hack’ is to make a little swatch of your colours to take with you so you can make more accurate colour choices. You could laminate it but I wrapped mine in Gladwrap™ because I’m classy like that.
A cheap as chips refillable aquabrush $9.99 for three from Warehouse stationery. There’s your brush and your water all-in-one and you’re good to go. The point is surprisingly good if you keep the lid on, and once you’ve got to grips with how hard to squeeze the brush for water control you’re golden. Also you won’t lose or damage your expensive brushes while travelling, or break and spill your water jar in your bag as I have
An old ‘white’ facecloth for dabbing your brush. I keep a couple of these grotty looking characters on the go and simply haven’t found anything better to use.
A sealable waterproof bag: The main aim is to protect your sketchbook from your drinkbottle leaking in your bag. They do wear out, so a small waterproof pouch is a good idea, I’m just too lazy to find one and it’s so light and everything is visible in there.
On Saturday I had the absolute joy of being interviewed by Bethan Burton for the international podcast Journaling With Nature. Episode 145 - out now. Bethan is such a consummate professional that I had a brilliant time chatting about nature journaling, nature and creativity and entirely forgot to be nervous about appearing on one of my favourite podcasts! In a twist which surprise absolutely nobody, it turns out I can talk...at length. We had quite a few laughs as we shared our experiences and our approaches to Nature Journaling. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN
We covered such great topics as
The similarities and differences between botanical art and nature journaling.
The pitfall of perfectionism.
Nature journaling in a conference setting.
Nature journaling as a means of self-care
If you are also happen to be a podcast tragic like I am (listening while I paint, walk, drive, cook, queue etc), you might also find this is generally one of the good podcasts for relaxing or before bed, because is is simply joyful and uplifting content about people finding inspiration in nature and creativity. Please consider subscribing to Journaling With Nature on whichever app you use.
If you are interested in finding out more about nature journaling, reach out! The botanical classes I am running through the year at Auckland Domain Wintergardens are based on nature journaling principles. Click here to find out more!
I hate to sound like I am getting played off at the Oscars here but I'd like to mention two absolute mentors: On instagram check out the work of @lesleyalexanderart and @sandramorrisart I’d like to thank them for being so encouraging to an absolute upstart and showing the way.
A further enduring source of inspiration I thoroughly recommend, particularly on technique and neuroscience aspects is John Muir Laws, whose incredible book (bible, really) The Laws Guide to Nature Drawing and Journaling I hold up and point to at every class I ever teach. It’s massive but stuffed with goodness.
Thank you @journalingwithnature for the chat. I will be thinking about our conversation for some time to come.
My calendar Reconnect with Nature 2024 is now ready to go! Thanks so much to everybody who asked me when it would be coming out and encouraged me to go through with it once more. As always it takes a lot longer to get to the print ready stage than imagined but the printer’s sample has just arrived and it looks and feels perfect and well worth the wait! You can get a sneak peek of the inside here.
Reconnect With Nature 2024 is a 12 month botanical calendar featuring prints from my original watercolour paintings. Each month features a different plant subject, some from Auckland Wintergardens, others from my neighbourhood, and some more relaxed nature journaling images straight from my sketchbooks. I hope you enjoy them!
The calendar is A4 opening to A3 portrait size. It features one month per spread with a final double page allowing forward planning for 2025.
It is printed locally in New Zealand, on an uncoated card stock which is completely recyclable when the year is over. It will be delivered in a waterproof compostable plastic envelope which can be recycled with your soft plastics.
A note on postage:
Postage and packaging within New Zealand is $5 (for up to 5 calendars).
Postage and packaging outside NZ is set at $7 per calendar due to a quirk in the NZ postal system, which means weirdly it’s cheaper for you if I mail them to you individually.
If you wish to make a bulk order let me know and I can investigate postage for you.
All postage will be untracked due to the excessive cost, however if you would like yours tracked please email me.
Thanks so much to Benedict O’Flaherty for the beautiful design and to Nicholas O’Flaherty for the production assistance and detail orientation.
If you think this calendar would make a lovely gift or adorn your kitchen or study wall feel free to order now. We should get our hands on them early next week and mail them out in good time for Christmas (allowing for the vagaries of international post).
Click here if you’d like one. And please - do let me know if anything weird happens in the ordering. We’ve tested it out but you just never know!
Love, Jennifer xx
