Colori Flori Summit, meet the artists

🌼 Early Bird registration closes Monday 18 May

For Colori Flori 2026, I hand picked a lineup of artists whose work I feel a strong affinity with, I also value their unique contributions and individual way of teaching. It is a joy and privilege to have this talented group of female creatives sharing what they are passionate about, I am delighted to present to you the fourteen teachers that are participating in the summit.

Each of them has prepared and recorded a video lesson exclusive to this event, using a specific #coloricombo colour palette of their choice. In each lesson they’ll demonstrate techniques and processes in water based media to produce an outcome in response to the summit’s floral and botanical theme.

Let me introduce all of them properly in alphabetical order and tell you a bit about this amazing and dynamic group of creatives and what they will do in their lessons. What a lineup!

🇳🇱 Miriam Bos

@_miriambos | Strokes of Sunflower

Miriam hails from the Netherlands and enjoys bringing ideas to life through art and design. She works from her studio, creating illustrations for a diverse range of projects, including books, puzzles, games, fabric collections, stationery and home décor. Preferred mediums are gouache, crayons, acrylics, watercolour, pencils, and ink, often combined with digital techniques and collage.

“I have a passion for bright colors, crazy textures, and art that feels handmade. I guess it’s safe to say that I love making things.”

Miriam’s current focus is on creating picture books for the young ones and she’s the author and illustrator of the hugely successful series about the characters August the Fox and Suzy Squirrel.

In Miriam’s lesson you will learn how to explore ways to paint sunflowers with gouache using a more muted colour palette.

🇨🇦 Claire Desjardins

@claire_desjardins_art | Colour Notes from Sicily

Claire Desjardins is an award-winning abstract painter based in Gore, Quebec, who exhibits her paintings in galleries across North America. Her paintings, although abstract, take their visual cues from forms, colours, textures and patterns in nature: the feathers of a bird, the shades of turquoise in the water, how the light through the trees dapples on the ground below.

Beyond the canvas, her art transforms commercial and residential interiors, urban exteriors, housewares, furniture, package design and women’s apparel. Her work has appeared in major motion pictures and popular television shows. Claire’s long-standing corporate collaborations shape and define the customer experience – most notably for North American retail giant Anthropologie.

In her lesson Claire will show you how she adapts to work in a much smaller scale than her normal sized paintings, Claire recorded her lesson whilst on location in Sicily.

🇬🇧 Tansy Hargan

@palimpsestparade | Freesia Facets

Meditative and relaxing is how you can describe Tansy’s specific way of creating in the moment. Originally trained in both architecture and landscape architecture, Tansy is a colour synesthete*, artist and educator who uses colour and mindfulness to activate and regulate herself and her creative output.

Tansy took part in Colori Flori 2025 and her wonderful meditative way of creating was so enjoyable to watch, I cannot wait to share with you what Tansy does using Freesias as topic, and vibrant reds and yellow as her palette.

🇬🇧 April Howlett

@monkeymintaka | Plants as People

April is a mixed media illustrator and storyteller based in the Lake District of England where she loves to be out in nature and find inspiration in the beautiful landscapes, forests, and lakes of the area.

“I am obsessed with experimenting with traditional materials and quirky colour combinations and always aim to create art that tells rich and memorable stories.”

Better known as @monkeymintaka online, April loves to share her on livestreams and videos over on YouTube and Patreon.

In April’s lesson she will take you on a fantastic journey in her sketchbook, exploring ways to anthropomorphise plants, she turns plants into people in such a fun way, and you will get to learn a whole lot about combining water based mixed media!

🇺🇸 Dar James

@indarsworld | Petals and Pieces

Dar is a full-time mixed media artist, writer, and illustrator of six children’s picture books. A lifelong teacher and workshop leader, she trained with Golden Acrylics and is a Silver Brush Educator.

Based in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, she exhibits regionally, leads annual art retreats, and runs an online artists membership focused on developing artistic style, deepening colour understanding and building a strong foundation in acrylic through experimentation and play.

Dar is back this year after being part of the first Colori Flori summit, her lesson is a testament to her love of colour, botanical forms and use of patterns, a joy to watch.

🇬🇧 Esté MacLeod

@estemacleod | Doodle Bloom

Hello! I’m a professional artist and designer with a background in textile and surface pattern design. Alongside teaching online courses and running art retreats I create still life, landscape and floral paintings in acrylics and mixed media with galleries in the UK and internationally representing me. Artworks are often turned into designs that are licensed for use on all kinds of products, from wallpaper and textiles to homeware, ceramics, puzzles and stationery.

In my lesson for this summit you will explore different ways to incorporate shapes and doodles to become layered floral artworks.

🇺🇸 Katie O’Shea

@katie_oshea_design | Paint to Pattern

Katie O’Shea is a Bay Area-based artist whose vibrant work celebrates the beauty and complexity of the natural world. With a background in graphic design she seamlessly blends traditional and digital mediums, working in paint, pencil, and digital illustration to create detailed images of botanicals. Her keen eye for detail and colour brings each botanical subject to life, capturing both their delicate intricacies and bold forms.

Her art has found a global audience through licensing partnerships with designs appearing on a wide range of products, from home décor and textiles to stationery and packaging, allowing her unique vision to brighten everyday life in countless ways.

As she continues to explore new techniques and collaborations, Katie remains committed to creating art that inspires connection, wonder, and joy.

Katie will show you in her lesson a simple but very effective way to create an analog repeat pattern. You will learn how to use four pieces of paper and acrylic markers to develop your own design in repeat.

🇦🇺 Rowan Sivyer

@littlerowanredhead | Faux Chine Collé Poppies

Rowan Sivyer, AKA Little Rowan Redhead, is a Sydney-based printmaker, painter and self-confessed obsessed maker. She is also the author of the book, Modern Block Printing.

Driven by a lifelong passion for making, Rowan specialises in relief printing, carving and printing daily in her home studio. Her lino prints frequently feature Australian flora and she is known for not shying away from her bold use of colour.

In Rowan’s lesson you will discover how she creates a layered poppy themed artwork using two printmaking techniques. If you are tempted to try gel plate printing, or dive deeper into alternative printmaking techniques this lesson will be sure to spark brand new ideas.

🇺🇸 Janet Skates

@janetskatesart | Pretty in Pink

Janet is an artist based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She creates using acrylic paints, paint pens, markers, oil pastels, acrylic inks and watercolours and her gardens, nature walks, plants and music are her primary inspiration.

“I believe that our homes and our workspaces are sacred. My mission is to create artwork that enhances space and lends energy and love wherever it is.”

Janet will show you how she constructs a stylised still life painting using wet-on-wet watercolour techniques, colour mixing and pen-and-ink detailing in a beautiful colour palette. You are sure to discover some new techniques and ways of creating in this fun class.

🇺🇸 Carrie Smith

@carriesmithart | Mounted Floral Medallion

Carrie is a mixed media collage artist whose work is rooted in vibrant colour, layered pattern, and global inspiration gathered through her travels.

Known for her signature use of dot motifs and hand-painted patterns, she creates detail-rich, funky floral collage work that brings happiness and colour into the world.

In Carrie’s lesson she will demonstrate how she use pink and purple floral patterns along with fine details in a meditative creative process.

🇦🇺 Julie Sydenham

@julie.sydenham.art | Flowers & a Finch

Based on the beautiful South Coast of NSW Australia, Jules has operated her busy studio for over 26 years. As a gentle and creative guide, she believes in the power of finding meaning through making and works intuitively across sketchbooks and larger works, typically layering pen, paint and pattern to create art that feels both playful and deeply considered.

Through her classes, workshops, retreats and online content, Jules inspires others to reconnect with their creativity, quiet the inner critic and build confidence with their art.

Love working in watercolour? You are in for a treat, In Julie’s finch and floral themed lesson she will show you how she combines watercolour and aquarelle pencils to create interesting layers with patterns and many details added in delightful way.

🇺🇸 Betsy Walton

@betsywalton | Finding Range within a Limited Palette

Betsy is a Portland, Oregon based artist whose work centres on colour, pattern, and imagined environments. Drawing from nature and memory, she creates layered paintings that balance structure with intuition.

Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows in the Pacific Northwest, and she shares her approach to painting through workshops and special projects.

Interested in colour mixing? In Betsy’s class you will learn how to mix a beautiful range of colours from bright pinks to mustard and soft sage. She will demonstrate how she plans a stylised still life painting and create a richly layered artwork in acrylic gouache with delightful details.

🇬🇧 Clare Youngs

@clareyoungs | Make Your Mark

Clare Youngs is a collage artist who makes colourful and playful artworks from cut paper. Each piece of paper used is hand painted or printed with textures and pattern work and then cut and pieced together to make the finished piece. Her work has a strong graphic feel about it, which directly stems from her background in design and training as a graphic designer.

Pattern is an important feature of her artworks and she uses pen and ink, paint and printing methods to produce an endless variety of patterns to use, often printing a texture over a pattern to add another layer and depth to the finished piece. Clare’s work has a retro feel to it and her love of mid century design, especially textiles and children’s book illustration has been an influence when developing her own style.

People have often said that her artworks make them smile. This is something that is very important to Clare and in turn makes her smile!

I am so excited to introduce Clare as part of Colori Flori 2026. Clare is a master collage artist and in her jam packed lesson you will learn how to create interesting printed and painted papers for collaging.

🇪🇸 Estee Zales

@estee.zales | Imagined Flowers

Esther González, known online as Estee Zales, is a Spanish mixed-media artist and writer specialising in collage. Self-taught and endlessly curious, she is drawn to the small, the unusual, and the often overlooked.

Her practice spans visual diaries, picture books, editorial projects, fabric design, and floral work, blending personal exploration with creative experimentation.

She also runs a Substack workshop called Journal Rash, offering monthly prompts and drawing exercises. The workshop provides a private space to share work and explore creative experimentation without the pressure of performance.

It is not often that I encounter another person who shares my name, let alone one that is also an artist. I share Estee’s enthusiasm for details that can easily be overlooked. In Estee’s lesson you will learn how to create interesting textures and marks with landscapes as inspiration, to then become elements of a stylised floral collage artwork.

Early Bird registration

Early Bird registration for Colori Flori opened earlier this month, make use of the 20% discount currently on offer for this two week long event packed with carefully curated content linked to flowers, botanical forms and specific colour palettes.

The fourteen artists participating this year have recorded lessons for this summit. We’ve edited these into easily digested daily portions and packaged it up neatly with subtitles (English and Spanish).

Once released, you’ll have lifetime access to all the lessons so you can revisit them in your own time and make art at a pace that suits you.

Click below for Early Bird registration at only £60.00 or $78.40 valid until 18 May when the first lesson is released.

Dip your toes... a BONUS weekend of warm ups

Before we kick off on Monday 18 May there’s a weekend of warm up lessons in that’ll be shared free for all on Substack

I’ve put together two fun demo videos where you will get some ideas for playing with no-pressure, sketchbook focussed creative processes. These lessons are linked to shapes chosen from this years weekly #coloricombo prompts.

The weekend bonus lessons are pre-recorded and will also become part of the summit’s content.