When I look back at how my creative workshops began, I am still amazed by how they have grown into such a meaningful part of my life. They have deepened my personal relationship with art and brought so many wonderful people into my world. Just as importantly, they have connected many people to one another. Hosting creative workshops was never something I planned. Instead, it unfolded naturally, year by year, as I followed what felt joyful, creative, and worth sharing.

2023 Where It All Started

My first event was the Picnic Painting Aum Workshop in January 2023. Before that, I had collaborated with others on collage workshops in 2022, but I hadn’t really organised anything on my own. This workshop was outdoors, relaxed, and very intimate, as only one person showed up out of the three paid tickets. The next outdoor painting session I planned immediately afterward had to be cancelled because Auckland experienced the biggest flood in its history.

At the time, I didn’t realise that first workshop would spark a whole journey. I simply wanted to share a peaceful moment of artmaking. Another incredible thing was that the person who came eventually became a good friend.

Spreading over the whole year of 2023, I started hosting more acrylic painting sessions that same year. They were simple, colourful, beginner-friendly experiences that reminded adults how fun it is to create without pressure. Those early classes helped me gain experiences as a facilitator and showed me how art could bring people together and build community.

Towards the end of 2023, I started opening my creative workshops with a tea meditation session, inviting everyone to slow down and settle into the moment before diving into painting.

2024 A Year of Creative Mediums

2024 became all about exploration through hosting different workshops with collage, acrylic paint, watercolour and ink. Each medium invited a different kind of creativity: playful, intuitive, messy and meditative. Exploring mediums, for me, also meant introducing them to people in my workshops and watching participants try these tools for the very first time. Seeing how they experimented, discovered new techniques and surprised themselves became one of the most rewarding parts of the year.

I had begun incorporating tea meditation into my workshops in 2023, but in 2024 it became an even more intentional part of the experience. At the beginning of each session, we sat together, set an intention to be present and let go of any expectation to make perfect art. This consistent ritual helped create a gentle, grounding atmosphere where people felt safe to explore and enjoy the process.

One of my favourite projects from that year was the “Hand making Your Own Oracle & Tarot Deck” workshop series. Using collage, people made personal oracle and tarot cards filled with symbolism, humour and little pieces of themselves. It was magical watching everyone open up, trust their intuition and create something deeply meaningful.

I once received feedback from someone, who later also became a good friend, that collaging was actually stressful for them. That insight was just as valuable as the positive feedback, because it helped me reflect on how I could better support people who find decision-making in art stressful.

I have created a youtube video showing a process of making my own oracle card recycling old playing card deck that you can watch below.

2025 The Year of Colouring

Then came 2025, a year of complete transformation. In the first few months, I continued exploring different mediums like watercolour and ink, while also deepening my mindfulness practice through The Way of Tea (Cha Dao). Most of my creative workshops became mindfulness-based, where we sipped tea in silence and created art in silence. By the end of each session, I always crafted time for sharing and connection, giving everyone space to reflect and return to one another.

I’m not someone who enjoys multi-tasking, especially when it comes to art. By designing my workshops in a way that reflects how I like to create and connect with others, I have been able to attract like-minded folks who also value creativity and connection in the same way.

In April 2025, I published Sacred Presence, my 5th colouring books. And around the same time, I started to shift fully into hosting mindfulness colouring workshops. Colouring had always been a solo creative act for me, something I could dive into for hours, days, and even weeks on my own. Colouring with a community was something I didn’t expect, but it was an experience I quickly and wholeheartedly fell in love with.

This was also the year Moon Art NZ (Ohuhu’s agent in New Zealand) stepped in and sponsored all my workshops with their alcohol markers and coloured pencils. Their generosity allowed me to give participants access to professional, vibrant art tools, and many of them were trying alcohol markers for the very first time. Sharing these tools felt like sharing possibilities, especially with people who wouldn’t normally invest in them. I am really stoked and grateful to be able to share these tools and the art techniques I’ve learned with everyone who comes to my workshops.

Colouring brought a new kind of energy to my workshops - super fun, accessible, calming and wonderfully connective. People would sit down, choose colours that spoke to them, and let everything else melt away.

One of the reasons I decided to only host colouring workshops going forward was that I felt I could spread myself too thin trying to illustrate and publish books while also hosting regular art workshops. The only way this could work was for all art workshops to be colouring workshops, which helped me limit the amount of preparation time needed before each one. It also helped me keep my art supplies to a minimal number.

Hosting Without my own Studio And Finding Community Anyway

One thing I have learned is that you don’t need a permanent studio to build a creative community. Throughout these years, I have hosted workshops everywhere I could:

• Rented venues.

• Wellness centres who welcomed me into their community spaces and added my workshops to their timetable.

• Bookstore reading lounges.

• My partner's office.

• Picnic (free venue when weather permits)

• And most recently, a small local café near my home.

Each place shaped the experience differently. The wellness centres brought a grounding, nurturing atmosphere. The bookstores added a cosy sense of curiosity. And the café meetups, my first casual, non-class gatherings, were filled with laughter, conversation, and the delightful challenge of colouring while chatting. A different kind of focus, but a beautiful one.

Creating Spaces That Feel Like Home

Through every stage, painting, collage, tarot-making, and now colouring, my intention has stayed the same:

to create a warm and welcoming space where people can explore creativity together.

I don’t see these events as formal classes even I do teach art techniques. They’re shared moments. A chance to slow down, play with colour, forget the outside world for a while, and remember what it feels like to create just for the joy of it.

As my journey continues, I'd love these workshops to keep growing with me in ways that rooted in presence, connection, coloured by community, and guided always by what feels genuine and joyful.

All of my colouring books are available on Amazon with 2-3 weeks delivery. You can check them out here.