Plant drawing workshops for everyone
Draw Plants Together acknowledges the unceded Aboriginal Land where the plant drawing workshops take place.
I pay my respects to First Nations Elders, people and communities, and acknowledge your ongoing custodianship and care of Country.
draw
Draw Plants Together offers friendly and inclusive plant drawing workshops.
The workshops are a space for creativity and an opportunity to spend time with plants and connect with other people.
Drawing is a great thing to do. It can be relaxing and enjoyable, and a good source of learning.
Lots of us have the feeling ‘I can’t draw’. But we don’t often pause to question what drawing actually is or why we do it in the first place.
We also often overlook the material and interpersonal conditions of drawing, and the important role these play.
Draw Plants Together workshops provide a space for creativity that suspends evaluative, critical thinking around drawing, and that allows time and space for the sensory and relational qualities of drawing to be felt.
The workshops hope to support your own personal, subjective creative process, in the company of people and plants – and I hope you enjoy :)
plants
At the heart of the workshops is the relationship we have with plants.
Plants are all around us, whether they’re house plants, herbs, vegetables, weeds, street trees or plants in nature-strips, reserves, parks and gardens.
And all of us have a relationship with them, in one way or another.
When we tune in to notice plants and draw them, all sorts of things emerge. We can start to appreciate their forms and colours, or their behaviour and character. Or notice the different kinds of relationship we have with plants.
Something I love about plants is that they can show us how beautiful care can be. When we care for plants, they respond, and often in beautiful ways.
One of my hopes with Draw Plants Together is to support community-led habitat restoration efforts, and to encourage creative connections with the plants that are planted in restoration work.
These plants play essential roles in sustaining the health of local environments and in supporting biodiversity. Planting local plants encourages local pollinators and the return of local wildlife.
I’m keen to see how drawing plants together can support greater connection with plants and each other. And I hope the workshops support more of us to notice and care for local ecologies – ecologies that we’re also a part of.
together
Draw Plants Together workshops are a mix of personal time for reflection and opportunities to connect with others.
Drawing with other people is often enjoyable – it can be a nice way into more social connections, or can simply be an opportunity for creativity, held by the supportive feeling of having company.
Drawing with other people sometimes involves conversation and sometimes stillness and quiet. Talking, drawing and moments of quiet, together can create a friendly and respectful space for creative collective learning.
A space for learning that is respectful, reflective, gently social, present-oriented and unmediated by technology is so valuable right now.
My hope is that the workshops resource us and give us energy so we can ‘be with’ the problems of this time.
I hope the workshops create an inclusive space of connection and personal, social and ecological well-being.
Draw Plants Together is an inclusive space
Everyone of all ages, backgrounds, sexualities, genders and abilities is welcome
A respectful space for First Nations people
A respectful space for LGBTIQA+, non-binary and gender diverse people
I prioritises accessibility
Please let me know what you need for the workshops to be the best experience for you
Workshops are delivered in English unless co-facilitated or with an interpreter
I am a qualified English language teacher, and am happy to provide English language support
Workshops fees are by sliding scale and seek to be equitable
No fee for First Nations people
Draw Plants Together makes regular donations to local First Nations orgs and local habitat restoration initiatives
“A very gentle, informative approach. I felt safe, supported and inspired to be creative and connect with plants. The best workshop I've taken”
– participant, 'Plant life queer life' with Bridge Queer Gathering for FUSE Darebin
“Draw Plants Together offers a form of relaxation, even meditation, ways of engaging with plants free of the pressure to ‘know already’, and ways to think about how we respond to climate change, injustice and species loss in ways that can support action rather than overwhelm to inaction”
– Liz Morrigan, participant at NECHHi East Coburg
about me
Hi there :) My name is Craig (he/him).
I started Draw Plants Together in 2023 as a way for me to contribute my experience and skills in art and learning in connection with my love of plants and my interest in well-being.
I’ve worked as a learning facilitator (aka teacher, educator) for around 20 years in a range of different contexts. I’ve also spent time at art school (RMIT and VCA) and completed an Advanced Certificate with Gestalt Therapy Australia – probably one of the most meaningful learning experiences of my life. Last year, I participated in the Habitat and Conservation Management course through Darebin Creek Management Committee. I volunteer and have occasional work at Victorian Indigenous Nurseries Co-op (VINC).
In terms of my background, I was born in South Africa and my parents are English. I arrived on Aboriginal Land as teenager. I live on unceded Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country and pay my respects to First Nations Elders, communities and people across the continent.
Please get in touch if you’d like to find out more about the workshops or have a chat :)
A note about the knowledge I share
I am a non-Indigenous person. The knowledge I share around indigenous plants is non-Indigenous, based on my work at a non-Indigenous-led indigenous plant nursery, personal study, and my experiences observing and growing these plants.
I hope that sharing this knowledge as part of the drawing workshops supports habitat restoration efforts and increases people’s familiarity with local plants and the important roles they play in sustaining local ecologies.
I share resources by First Nations authors and individuals and celebrate First Nations work in this space. I do not position myself as a knowledge holder in terms of Indigenous knowledge around Indigenous plants or any other topic. And I advocate for clarity around this by other non-Indigenous people working in this area.
