Botanical Watercolour Workshop (29 March 2026)
Botanical Watercolour Workshop with Helen Placanica
10–1pm Sunday 29 March 2026
Join botanical artist Helen Placanica for an introduction to watercolour painting, where meticulous technique and artistic skill converge to elevate your creative practice.
Botanical art aims to accurately depict the form, colour and botanical details with scientific detail and focuses on capturing the unique characteristics and inherent beauty of each plant – just as it is, not as we might want it to be. Botanical watercolour painting is a key skill for botanical artists who want to explore the plant world in all its colour and glory.
You'll learn about the history of botanical art which has occupied a space at the intersection of science and beauty from the time of renaissance art, through to early global exploration and development of botanical science, until emerging as a distinct artform in its own right.
Helen will provide you with an introduction on painting with watercolours, including the different materials (paper, paint types, and brushes) and techniques (wet-on-wet, wet-on-dry, dry brush) that you'll be using in the workshop. Helen will demonstrate how to combine these materials and techniques with colour mixing to add tonal value to your painting, and you'll have an opportunity to put your new knowledge to work with some practice exercises.
With the fundamentals covered, it's time to prepare for your first botanical watercolour painting, which for this workshop will be the elegant small-leafed fig (Ficus obliqua). Helen will show you how to set up your workspace to work with live specimens and digital imagery. You'll prepare colour swatches to colour match with your live specimen and transfer a pre-prepared drawing to watercolour paper before working through the full watercolour painting process step-by-step with Helen. We'll apply a first wash, learn how to deepen colour and add tone, before adding fine details and finishing touches to complete our painting. By the end of the workshop, you will have all the skills you need to complete more botanical watercolour paintings on your own.
Materials and Collection
All the materials required for the workshop will be provided. Please wear an apron if you are worried about staining your clothes.
About Helen Placanica
Helen Placanica is an award-winning botanical artist who specialises in detailed graphite and watercolour studies to depict the bold and often bizarre but always beautiful Australian native plants. She enjoys sharing her skills in botanical art with others to help them see and appreciate the natural world in new ways. Helen is a member of the Botanical Art Society of Australia and her artworks have featured in group exhibitions Australia wide.
Who Should Attend?
This workshop is perfect for anyone who is curious about botanical art and the natural world. No experience is necessary: the detailed process of botanical art makes this accessible for students at all skill levels. This workshop compliments Helen's botanical drawing workshops, and you can join either workshop without any prior experience.
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Cost
$120 / $108 (Frequent workshoppers)
Frequent workshopper discount: Sign up for 2 or more Plant Empire workshops, or register 2 or more people for the same workshop, to receive 10% off the total registration price (discount will appear at checkout).
Location
Plant Empire has moved! This workshop will be held at our new premises in Tennyson, Brisbane: 15/55 Lofter St, Tennyson Q 4105.
Accessibility
In our new premises, we have ground floor workshop spaces as well as mezzanine level spaces with stairs. The ground floor spaces are all level without any steps, while the mezzanines are accessible via a staircase with 22 steps and 1–2 landings. Please let us know if you have any mobility issues that would limit your access to the mezzanine spaces so that we can ensure that your workshop is located at ground level by adding a note in the special instructions field when you register for your workshop: for example, "no stairs" or similar.
Reminders
You have full control over how (and how often) you receive reminders for our events. You will receive one email confirmation from us when you purchase your workshop registration; but we won't send any further email reminders, so please ensure that you have the workshop details in your diary. You can also use the "add to calendar" function in our events calendar to add workshops to your digital calendar and customise your reminder preferences.
Cancellation Policy
Please choose carefully before registering for this workshop as we do not offer refunds on event bookings. If you need to cancel your place up to 24 hours before the workshop, we will provide you with a voucher that you can use to attend a future workshop or any other purchase at Plant Empire. We regret that we are unable to provide vouchers for cancellations made within 24 hours of the workshop.
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