Draw Plants Together acknowledges the unceded Aboriginal Land where the workshops take place and expresses respect to Elders and all First Peoples
'Drawing as conversation’ Warrandyte
Friendly, inclusive drawing workshops that support creativity, nature-connectedness & wellbeing
Draw Plants Together workshops are an opportunity to experiment with drawing in conversation with nature in a supportive, inclusive, gently social space.
Draw Plants Together hosts workshops independently and in collaboration with community groups, organisations, schools and local councils, indoors and outdoors in urban and rural settings.
The initiative has been running since 2023, and has a special focus on supporting community-led ecological restoration.
draw
creative process
Draw Plants Together workshops offer supportive conditions to befriend creative process.
Activities involve experimentation, are more about process than outcome, and invite reflection around the experiences of drawing, individually and in the context of the group.
Drawing is something we can do at any age to feel more connected to nature, to ourselves and to each other. It’s a simple way to get in touch with our senses and take a break from screens.
And it can also be challenging to draw – to get back into drawing or to keep going with drawing.
The workshops are a supportive, inclusive, shared space for time with drawing, in conversation with nature.
'Drawing on Ecology’ Warrandyte
“This is the most fun and least intimidating time I've ever had drawing”
Glenroy Library Makerspace
“The activities were freeing and relaxing and removed the need to be ‘good’ or judgmental about my drawing”
St Kilda Botanical Gardens for Victorian Seniors Week
Cherry Street Grassland Reserve
plants
nature connection
At the heart of Draw Plants Together workshops are experiences of nature-connectedness.
Feeling connected to nature has been shown to be beneficial for health and wellbeing, and essential in developing a personal ethic of care.
Experiences of connection with nature, unmediated by technology, are becoming less frequent but are fundamental in turning towards nature at a time of massive changes in climate, biodiversity and life systems.
The drawing workshops encourage nature-connectedness though a sensory, embodied approach to drawing and through centring relationships with local ecologies and place.
Draw Plants Together has a special focus on ecological restoration efforts and offers workshops in collaboration with community groups, organisations and local councils active in this space.
Cherry Street Grassland Reserve
Banyule Northern Grassland
“The workshop was brilliant. I feel calmer, and really enjoyed being outside, getting to notice the smaller things, and the plants in the grassland”
Cherry Street Grassland Reserve
“Was lovely to spend time with the river and contemplate, through mark-making, how important it is to the life of this place (and us). Loved the quiet, slow pace and time to reflect”
'drawing as conversation’, Birrarung Riverfest 2025
together
relationship
Draw Plants Together workshops are supportive, inclusive and gently social.
There’s always space for personal creative time and for sharing and reflecting together in small groups.
The workshops support people and community to get together around drawing and nature and spend time in a low-pressure, relaxing, creative space in conversation with nature and with each other.
The workshops always happen in collaboration, often with local council and community organisations, and each workshop is unique to its context.
“I really enjoyed the guided freedom that Craig provided in the session. It allowed our own expression while all working together”
Yalukit Willam Nature Reserve
Kevin Heinze GROW Coburg
Bundoora Park
“I loved the opportunity to share drawings in small groups”
Cherry Street Grassland Reserve
An inclusive & intersectional space
everyone of all ages, backgrounds, sexualities, genders, bodies & abilities is welcome
A respectful space for First Peoples
A respectful space for LGBTIQA+, gender diverse and non-binary people
A neuro-affirming space, respectful of neurodiversity
I prioritise accessibility
Please let me know what you need for the workshops to be the best experience for you
Workshops are delivered in English unless with an interpreter
English language support available on request
Workshops fees seek to be accessible & equitable
No fee for First Peoples
Feedback around how I can better address barriers to participation and create a safe, respectful space is always welcome
Hi there! My name’s Craig (he/him).
I started hosting Draw Plants Together workshops in 2023 to contribute my skills and experience across creativity and facilitation in the space of ecological care and wellbeing.
More about the facilitator >
Projects & activities
(links coming soon!)
UNFURL
Weekly plant-centred making sessions called UNFURL, currently hosted at NECCHi neighbourhood house in East Coburg, Wurundjeri Country.
These sessions are like a creative hug each week, and now feature guest creatives and facilitators working at the overlap of creativity and nature
Grassland Workshops
The grasslands of the Victorian Volcanic Plain are an endangered ecological community with less than 0.5% remaining. Workshops in these grasslands bring people into connection with their unique beauty and into conversation around their protection into the future
Drawing on Ecology
In collaboration with restoration ecologists and field naturalists Rebecca Rees and Nayt Housman, these occasional workshops share stories of ecologies and restoration across seasonal changes, in connection with experiences of drawing and creative process
Create by the Creek
In collaboration with Sarah Muir-Smith from Snakebird Designs, these occasional short-courses and workshops centre the plant, animal and fungi communities of the Darebin catchment, Wurundjeri Country, through the lens of Regenerative Design and creative process
Special Projects
An archive of special one-off project and activities
what people are saying
“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 2024
“I really enjoyed the session outside, particularly how the breeze and weather changed the way we worked”
– participant, St Kilda Botanical Gardens for Victorian Seniors Festival 2025
“We’re grateful to Craig for his generous collaboration and for helping bring attention to the beauty and significance of local native plants through art, inspiring deeper connection and care for the landscapes we share”
– Darebin Creek Management Committee, community planting days 2025
“As someone who doesn’t have a lot of art-making experience and who is pretty shy, this felt like a really gentle and inclusive space to grow more comfy and less in my head. Also, as an autistic person, this felt really accessible and low pressure”
– participant, Edendale Environment Farm 2025
“I felt so many moments of wonder and connection”
– participant, Cherry Street Grassland Reserve for the Great Southern BioBlitz 2025
“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 2024
City of Whittlesea, Epping
Craig’s approach to drawing
Drawing as sensing, embodied process
Drawing is often understood in terms of an outcome (as ‘a drawing’). And somewhere along the line, most of us have learnt to judge this outcome in terms of our preferences, the preferences of others, or in terms of how our drawings compare to other drawings.
A friendlier, more helpful way to think about drawing is as an activity (‘to draw’ ‘drawing’) that we are part of, and to orient towards the process and the personal, subjective experience of drawing.
Orienting towards process allows space for curiosity. What’s it like to draw today? What does the activity of drawing feel like in connection with this place and the people I’m with? What do I notice as I draw?
Drawing as relational support
We live in times dominated by individualism, and drawing too is often understood as an expression of a separate self in complete control or mastery. Under this paradigm, the weight of drawing is ‘all on you’, and drawings reflect the skill (or for most of us, the lack of skill) of the individual.
This worldview overlooks the many different ways that drawing is not just about an individual, or the agency of an individual, and always happens in relationship.
Whether it’s a relationship with materials, with people, with place, or with more-than-human worlds, drawing is always a dialogue.
Leaning into the relational nature of drawing (and becoming receptive of the agency of non-human others) opens up possibilities, and allows a different experience of drawing to be felt. What’s it like to draw with the movement of trees or to register the sounds of insects through drawing? How might a river draw through us?
Cherry Street Grassland Reserve
join a workshop
Want to have a chat before signing up? Please get in touch – I’m happy to answer any questions.
Current Workshops (links coming soon!)
book a workshop
If you’re interested in booking at Draw Plants Together workshop for your community or organisation, please get in touch!
Workshop formats (links coming soon!)
collaborate
I welcome opportunities to connect with others working in similar spaces and welcome collaboration and co-facilitation. Please get in touch for a chat :)
get in touch
Have a question or want to chat? Contact details below.