NatureArt Lab - Art Classes

NatureArt Lab - Art Classes Nurturing Creative Connections with Nature
Citizen Science-Nature Art-Illustration-Photography-Tours

NatureArt Lab offers unique courses and workshops in natural history illustration, art and photography inspired by nature. Our programs integrate science and conservation values, and are suitable for people with all levels of experience.

🌿 Are you on our email list?Every now and then, when we have a few places remaining in an upcoming class, we like to sen...
15/09/2026

🌿 Are you on our email list?

Every now and then, when we have a few places remaining in an upcoming class, we like to send our subscribers a little last-minute offer.

This week, it’s $50 off Dr Fenja T. Ringl’s Moth & Butterfly Artist Books workshop — happening this weekend at NatureArt Lab.

For today and tomorrow only, you can save $50 and spend two creative days exploring linocut, botanical monoprinting and sculptural artist books, inspired by moths, butterflies and plants.

✨ And if you’d like to hear about offers like this in future, make sure you’re on our email list.

Our subscribers are the first to hear about:
🌿 last-minute workshop offers
🌿 new classes and retreats
🌿 special events and exhibitions
🌿 NatureArt Lab news and inspiration

Sign up to our emails: natureartlab.com.au

And if Fenja’s workshop has been tempting you, this might be the moment. 💚
$50 off bookings made by Thursday 17 September.

Book Fenja's workshop: natureartlab.com.au/products/moth-and-butterfly-artist-books-linocut-and-botanical-monotype-printmaking-with-dr-fenja-t-ringl-copy

🖤🤍 Magpies, watercolour and a very creative weekend!We had such fun painting these much-loved Australian characters with...
14/09/2026

🖤🤍 Magpies, watercolour and a very creative weekend!

We had such fun painting these much-loved Australian characters with Lesley Wallington. There were brushes moving, colours mixing and plenty of magpie personality appearing on the page.

One of the joys of painting a familiar bird is discovering just how much there is to notice when you really slow down and look — the subtle shifts in black, white and grey, the shape of the feathers, that wonderfully expressive eye.

And just look at what everyone created! 🌿

A big thank you to Lesley for guiding such a lovely group through the process.

🌿 Today is National Bilby Day — a chance to celebrate one of Australia’s most distinctive native animals, and the extrao...
13/09/2026

🌿 Today is National Bilby Day — a chance to celebrate one of Australia’s most distinctive native animals, and the extraordinary web of life it belongs to.

With their long ears, pointed noses and powerful claws, Greater Bilbies are remarkable diggers. As they forage and create burrows, they help turn over the soil, mix organic matter and create shelter that can benefit other creatures too.

They’re a wonderful reminder that biodiversity isn’t simply about how many species we have — it’s about the connections between them.

That idea of connection will be at the heart of our upcoming exhibition, See What I See: A Celebration of Biodiversity Through Art and Photography at M16 Artspace.

🌿 As part of the exhibition, we’re creating an interactive biodiversity map of Australia — and visitors will be invited to help it grow.

Add your own artwork or species observation, respond to guided prompts, and discover fascinating species facts and surprising details along the way.

Together, visitor contributions will create a changing visual record of what we notice, what we know and what we are curious to discover about Australia’s biodiversity.
✨ See What I See
24 September – 18 October 2026
M16 Artspace, Griffith
Official opening: Thursday 24 September, 6–8pm

And there are more ways to slow down and look closely this spring 🌸

Find NatureArt Lab at Floriade, where our tutors will be offering short art and nature experiences inspired by flowers, plants and seasonal change.

Or take that curiosity a little further with our foundation Drawing One and Watercolour One courses, beginning in October.

From a bilby reshaping the soil beneath its feet, to a bee visiting a flower or a bird added to our biodiversity map, the natural world is full of connections waiting to be noticed.

Slow down. Look closely. Stay curious. 🌿💚

Images: Dr Anna Votsekhovich; Ami Amlani, Julia Landford; Lesley Wallington

✨ FRIDAY FEATURE | From Term 3 to Term 4You can never have too many Friday Feature artists… can you? ✨As we move from on...
10/09/2026

✨ FRIDAY FEATURE | From Term 3 to Term 4

You can never have too many Friday Feature artists… can you? ✨

As we move from one term into the next, we’re celebrating two wonderful NatureArt Lab tutors whose work brings art, science and curiosity together in very different ways.

🦋 Closing out Term 3 — Dr Fenja T. Ringl

Canberra-based printmaker Dr Fenja T. Ringl brings together her backgrounds in archaeology, palaeo-ecology and science communication with a deep fascination for Australia’s natural environments.

In Moth and Butterfly Artist Books, Fenja will guide participants through linocut and botanical monotype printmaking, using insects and plants as inspiration before transforming the finished prints into beautiful sculptural artist books.

🦋 19–20 September

💙 Beginning Term 4 — Dr Inke Falkner

Then we head beneath the surface with marine biologist, science communicator and self-described “artsy scientist” Dr Inke Falkner.

Inke believes creativity can be a wonderful way to understand and connect with the natural world. In Blueprints of the Sea, she’ll introduce us to the extraordinary world of marine macroalgae, using fresh and dried seaweed specimens to explore form, pattern and function through cyanotype nature printing.

💙 3–4 October

From moths, butterflies and botanical prints to seaweed, underwater forests and cyanotype blue — two very different ways to slow down, look closely and discover more about the natural world through making. 💚

Farewell Term 3. Hello Term 4.

✨ Explore upcoming workshops at NatureArt Lab.
https://natureartlab.com.au/collections/canberra-classes

Images: Cyanotypes, Dr Inke Falkner; Insect book, Dr Fenja T. Ringl

🌸 Find NatureArt Lab at Floriade this spring — and join us for our exhibition opening!We’re delighted to be part of Flor...
10/09/2026

🌸 Find NatureArt Lab at Floriade this spring — and join us for our exhibition opening!

We’re delighted to be part of Floriade 2026, with a series of relaxed, hands-on art and nature sessions at the Garden House in Commonwealth Park. Come and explore flowers and plants through drawing, journalling, art, science and close observation, with guidance from NatureArt Lab tutors. No experience is needed, and materials and tuition are included.

Our Floriade workshops include Floral Fantasy with Xiaochen (Fiona) Bao, Wonders of Wattle with Karen Holloway, and Nature Journalling with Ami Amlani.

And while you’re celebrating spring with us, we’d also love to invite you to the opening of See What I See: A Celebration of Biodiversity Through Art and Photography.

✨ Official Opening
Thursday 24 September | 6–8pm
M16 Artspace, 21 Blaxland Crescent, Griffith

Featuring work by NatureArt Lab tutors, students and community members, the exhibition celebrates the extraordinary biodiversity around us — from familiar species to the small and often overlooked.

Come and make with us at Floriade, then come and see what we see. 🌸🦋🌿

🌸Explore our Floriade workshops:
https://natureartlab.com.au/collections/events/products/floriade-2026-science-and-nature-natureart-lab-workshops

🌿 See What I See exhibition details:
https://natureartlab.com.au/collections/events/products/floriade-2026-science-https://natureartlab.com.au/collections/events/products/see-what-i-see-art-exhibition-m16-artspace-24-september-18-october-2026

Images: Floral fantasy, Xiaochen (Fiona) Bao; Wonders of Wattle, Karen Holloway; Nature Journalling, Julia Landfor; Fiona Bao, Green Bao.

🌿 What did you notice today?Perhaps it was the first new leaves appearing on a familiar tree, a magpie gathering nesting...
10/09/2026

🌿 What did you notice today?

Perhaps it was the first new leaves appearing on a familiar tree, a magpie gathering nesting material, a patch of wattle glowing against the grey, or simply the way the evening light caught something you’ve walked past a hundred times.

Nature doesn’t always ask us to go somewhere extraordinary. Sometimes it simply asks us to look again.

At NatureArt Lab, that small act of noticing sits at the heart of so much of what we do — drawing, painting, journalling, learning about species and sharing what we see with one another.

So, before today disappears…
What’s one small thing in nature that caught your attention today? 🌱
Tell us below — we’d love to know.

Image: Karen Holloway

🌿 World Shorebirds Day | 6 SeptemberToday we celebrate shorebirds — remarkable birds that connect wetlands, coastlines a...
06/09/2026

🌿 World Shorebirds Day | 6 September

Today we celebrate shorebirds — remarkable birds that connect wetlands, coastlines and continents.

Their survival depends on healthy, biodiverse habitats, reminding us that biodiversity is about relationships: between species, places and ecosystems.

That idea sits at the heart of NatureArt Lab’s exhibition, See What I See — an invitation to slow down, look closely and notice the extraordinary diversity of life around us.

This World Shorebirds Day, take a moment to notice the birds around you — and everything that shares their habitat.

Image credits: Julia Landford; Jess Riese, Julia Landford, Lesley Walling

🌿 What if biodiversity could unfold in your hands?This Biodiversity Month, we’re looking at the natural world not as a c...
06/09/2026

🌿 What if biodiversity could unfold in your hands?

This Biodiversity Month, we’re looking at the natural world not as a collection of individual species, but as a web of relationships.

In Dr Fenja T. Ringl’s Moth & Butterfly Artist Books workshop, insects and plants come together through print.

🌙🦋 Create your own moth or butterfly linocut
🦋✨ Make botanical monoprints using real plant specimens
🌿🦋 Layer, cut and fold your prints into beautiful three-dimensional artist books

Rather than producing a single artwork, you’ll create something that can be opened, unfolded and explored — almost like a tiny habitat held in your hands.

It’s a lovely way to think about biodiversity: noticing the individual details while also seeing how different parts of the natural world belong together.

Moth & Butterfly Artist Books — Linocut & Botanical Monotype Printmaking
with Dr Fenja T. Ringl
✨ 19–20 September
✨ Saturday & Sunday, 9.30am–4pm
✨ NatureArt Lab, M16 Artspace

Two days. Two printmaking techniques. Two artist books to take home.

🌿 Friday Feature Artists | Biodiversity MonthThis week, we’re feeling especially proud of the wonderful artists and stud...
04/09/2026

🌿 Friday Feature Artists | Biodiversity Month

This week, we’re feeling especially proud of the wonderful artists and students in our NatureArt Lab community — so much so that we have two Friday Feature Artist posts to share!

In our previous post, we celebrated some of the talented artists whose work appears in our 2027 Natural History Art Calendar.

And here, we’re turning our attention to some of the artists and students taking part in our upcoming See What I See exhibition, including:
Cockatoo — Nyree Stein
Orchid — Dr Inke Falkner
Artist Book — Dr Sharon Peoples
Storm Brewing — Yvonne de Jong
Night Watch — Joan McKay
Rosellas — Xiaochen (Fiona) Bao
Abstract — Caroline Reid

It feels particularly fitting during Biodiversity Month. Across the exhibition you’ll find not only a wonderful diversity of species and subjects, but also an equally rich diversity of artistic styles, materials and techniques.

Each artist sees and interprets the natural world differently — from finely observed detail to expressive mark-making, and from familiar Australian wildlife and plants to the smaller things we might otherwise overlook.

That is part of what makes both biodiversity and art so fascinating: there is always more than one way of seeing.

✨ See What I See: A Celebration of Biodiversity Through Art and Photography
✨ M16 Artspace, Griffith
✨ 24 September – 18 October 2026
✨ Opening night – Thursday 24 September | 6-8pm

We’re incredibly proud to see the work of our NatureArt Lab community coming together in this exhibition. 💚

🌿 Friday Feature Artist | Biodiversity Month | A year of looking closelyBiodiversity isn’t something we notice only in S...
03/09/2026

🌿 Friday Feature Artist | Biodiversity Month | A year of looking closely

Biodiversity isn’t something we notice only in September — it changes, moves, flowers, arrives and disappears around us throughout the year.

Our 2027 Natural History Art Calendar is designed to help you keep noticing those changes.

Each month brings together original artwork by NatureArt Lab artists and tutors with observations of Australia’s natural rhythms — from flowering native plants and insect activity to bird movements and other seasonal events.

And just like biodiversity itself, the artwork is wonderfully varied, with watercolour, scratchboard, acrylic, printmaking, pen and ink and botanical illustration represented throughout the calendar.

This Friday, we’re featuring just a few of the artists whose work appears in our 2027 Natural History Art Calendar — celebrating a wonderful diversity of species, styles and techniques:
Magpies — Lesley Wallington
Gum Leaves — Esther Shelley
Moth — Dr Anna Voytsekhovich
Cockatoo — Dr Taylor Singh
Artist Book — Dr Fenja T. Ringl
Platypus — Jessica Riese
Botanical — Alison Oberg

💚It’s a year-long invitation to slow down, look closely and stay curious about the living world around us.

🌿 2027 Natural History Art Calendar
Designed and printed in Australia.

Address

M16 Artspace 21 Blaxland Crescent Griffith
Canberra, ACT
2603

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm
Saturday 9am - 5pm

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