Sunshine Paint Club: My First Watercolour Workshop
It happened. Sunshine Paint Club had its very first in-person watercolour workshop, and it was everything.
A room full of people who mostly hadn't picked up a paintbrush in years (some, possibly decades), a bright and beautiful studio space, coffee on arrival, and sunflowers. So many sunflowers.
Here's a little recap of how the day went.
The space
The stunning room at La Porte Space in Roseberry, Sydney, set the tone perfectly. Light-filled, airy, and just the right amount of beautiful. My team and I set up the tables with personalised watercolours packages with everything the attendees needed for the workshop and to continue their own watercolouring at home! We made sure it was the kind of setup that makes you want to sit down and create something immediately.
There were snacks on arrival - catered for by The Grounds, then my assistant took everyone’s tea and coffee order as we all got settled in for the morning. Plus snack breaks throughout the session, because great art deserves great snacks.
What we painted
The workshop ran for 2.5 hours and was structured so that by the end, every single person walked away with a finished watercolour sunflower they painted themselves.
But we didn't just dive straight into sunflowers. The session was broken into stages, and that structure made all the difference. Remember, my workshops are beginner friendly!
Stage 1: The basics
We started with swatches. Learning how watercolour actually behaves, how to manage water-to-pigment ratios, how a lighter touch gives you something soft and dreamy while more pigment gives you something bold and saturated. It sounds technical, but it clicked quickly once brush met paper.
We also explored how different brushes create different effects, something that seems obvious in theory but is genuinely satisfying to figure out in practice.
Stage 2: Different flowers
Before jumping to the main event, we warmed up with a few different flowers, putting the techniques from Stage 1 to use. Tulips, gerberas, a few experimental blooms. The tables started filling up with colour and the energy in the room shifted from "I'm not sure I can do this" to "okay, I'm actually doing this”. Seeing the attendees have this realisation filled my cup (and my heart) so much, because I truly believe we all need creativity in our lives!
Stage 3: The sunflower
The big finale. Using everything learned in the first two stages, everyone painted the Sunshine Paint Club sunflower. The one on the branded reference sheet. The one that, at the start of the session, probably looked a little intimidating. But by the end, every person at that table had their own version of it, and every single one was beautiful.
The thing about creativity
I wholeheartedly believe that everyone can paint, and after a session like this it's hard to argue with me (if I do say so myself!).
Not everyone believes that about themselves, of course. A lot of us decided somewhere between childhood and adulthood that we weren't "creative", that art was for other people, that we'd lost whatever spark we had when we were kids filling pages with drawings just because it was fun.
I created Sunshine Paint Club as a direct challenge to that idea.
Watching a room full of people rediscover that spark, seeing someone look at their finished sunflower with genuine surprise at what they'd made, that's what this is really about. Creativity isn't a talent you either have or don't. It's something we all carry, and sometimes it just needs a little space, a paintbrush, and a good playlist to come back out.
The group shot says it all
At the end of the session, we all got together for a group photo holding the finished paintings. Eleven people. Eleven sunflowers. Eleven massive smiles.
This photo is going to live in my heart forever, honestly, as the first ever group of the Sunshine Paint Club.
Sunshine Paint Club OG’s!
Want to come to the next one?
Sunshine Paint Club is just getting started. If you want to be the first to know when the next workshop is announced, click here to jump on the mailing list so you don't miss out.
Spots will be limited, and if this first session is anything to go by, they won't last long.