The aim of this project is:

To promote Botanical Art to a Brisbane audience by offering beginner classes in graphite and colour pencil. We are then looking to connect them to the Brisbane Botanical Artists group that meets monthly in Brisbane and BASA so that we help to grow both of these groups. We see this grant as a starting point, before we begin offering intermediate and specialised classes, including different media, with additional teachers.

Project description

MAIN STAGES

September to November 2025.

We will

• Develop our short classes to cover beginner techniques and then classes that will encourage them to continue with more technical classes. 
• Develop flyers, adverts and promote on socials etc.
• Set up a Brisbane Botanical Artist website landing page for classes, bookings, Momentum Day information and links to BASA, etc.
• Set up a Class Bento account and upload our class offerings.

January 2026

We would each start teaching short beginner classes once a month on a weekend. These classes will be around 3 to 4 hours in duration (as this is what is currently popular in the art class market in Brisbane). The graphite classes could include themes such as: Introduction to Graphite Drawing (Leaves), Drawing Flowers, Drawing Seedpods, Drawing Fungii, Composition, etc. The colour pencil classes could include themes such as: Introduction to colour pencil, Leaves in Colour Pencil, Yellow Flowers, Bark/Seed drawing, Advanced Colour and Water colour pencil class.

July-December 2026

Once we are happy with our class content, and if the demand is there, we will introduce a second class per month on a weekday, focusing on an older/ not working audience. These would be a similar structure to the weekend classes.

January 2027 onwards

Continue classes and look to expand classes and student demographics.

OUTCOMES

As a group we are looking to engage with new younger students who love plants and want to draw/ create art that is detailed and focused around plants. We hope to foster and promote the botanical art genre, whilst encouraging excellence in drawing. We will teach them about the classical approach to botanical art, whilst also fostering innovative approaches.

We envision that these participants will go onto join the Brisbane Botanical Artists group, which will continue to inspire and motivate them to improve and learn more. We will also direct them towards becoming members of BASA, so that they can be active members exhibiting nationally. As teachers, we also see ourselves expanding our offering and inviting other artists to also teach different mediums and techniques, within the Brisbane area.