| Issue N22 | 1st Sep 2026 |

Happy September!!! Hello friends!!

This morning I stepped outside to empty a bag of summer blankets that still had sand from St Malo in France. While I was giving it all a good shake, I looked up to our garden and noticed how much our one-and-only pumpkin has grown over the summer months and how vibrant it has become. We haven’t gardened much this year because we knew we’d be away for longer. So I’m very glad our pumpkin survived the heat of the summer.

September is a beautiful month here in Yorkshire. It also marks the beginning of my favourite season! Misty mornings, cinnamon swirls, chunky cardigans, changing leaves, and all the best apple recipes. We still get warm days but the evenings are much cooler (much more comfortable), perfect for stargazing and campfires. Easing into Autumn will be a central theme in coming weeks here in the club. 25 Ways to Celebrate the Arrival of Autumn is a post I wrote in 2025 with ideas of ways we can gently move from late summer into early Autumn. I’m working on a fresh new one with a few tweaks which include more analogue ideas!

And this month, the club turns TWO!! We will celebrate by sharing our favourite seasonal recipes during this month’s co-creating session but more on this below!

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Poet’s Corner

By L.M. Montgomery

Lo! a ripe sheaf of many golden days

Gleaned by the year in autumn’s harvest ways,

With here and there, blood-tinted as an ember,

Some crimson poppy of a late delight

Atoning in its splendor for the flight

Of summer blooms and joys

— This is September.

MONTHLY REPORT

• Wednesday 1st July gazette drop - If you missed the summer gazette, here it is. It had a bingo sheet and a creative reset sheet for you to download (free).

• Wednesday 8th July - monthly video drop:

1. Finishing Travel Sketchbooks with Paper Treasures and Meaningful Painted Covers (with a sketchbook flip-through of my finished Portugal sketchbook)

2. Paris Video: Matisse Exhibition Take-Aways, my Travel Sketchbook Tour and Shop Haul (And 16 ideas for your sketchbook on a plan B trip in Paris)

• Monday 20th July Drawing Session on Zoom we had the pleasure of having with us guest Sara Boccaccini Meadows - Drawing Derbyshire. Sara generously shared the process behind her sketchbook practice, how it started and has developed over the years as well as how it has had such an impact on her illustration jobs ever since. Together we drew beautiful landscapes of Derbyshire and got to know her a little better along the way. Thanks again Sara for joining us for this wonderful time!

• Monday 24th August New Term Prep Party: Co-Creating session (1hr) we sharpened pencils, swatched new paints, shared summer projects, with an opportunity to share our summer bingo outcome. This was a chatty session throughout. You can catch the replay here.

• Friday 28th August Co-Journaling session (1hr) - This was a silent journaling session (muted, bring your own music), with 15mins to chat at the end. You can catch the replay here.

  During the co-journaling session, we considered these end of summer prompts:

- What was July and August like for me?

- What were the highlights?

- What moments can I celebrate with a drawing? What colours pop out?

- Did I get annoyed/angry/impatient about something? How did I overcome this?

- What would I like to learn from summer 2026 moving forward?

- What is happening in my life this September 2026?

- What shifts am I most looking forward to, moving into the next season?

Pick & Mix Inspo

First Fire After Two Winters in the Nordic Cold | Roaming Wild Rosie on YouTube

Taylor Swift’s Seasonal Medley | Grammy Museum on YouTube

Autumn Apple Pie | Country Life Vlog on YouTube

Rebecca Green on Grief, Creativity and Re-Finding Your Magic | Creative Pep Talk on YouTube

Why Stars Hollow Feels So Cozy | Daddy Stays Home on YouTube

How I Use Coloured Pencils | The Wild Pencil on YouTube

September Calendar

Club Dates

• Drawing Paris in Autumn Session Tuesday 8th September 7pm BST

• Creating Session: Autumnal Crafts & Seasonal Recipe Swap, an opportunity to work on your own autumnal project while hearing about seasonal recipes. See more details in this post. Tuesday 22nd September 7pm BST

• Monthly Video Release: Thursday 24th September 7pm BST

• Drawing Italy Session: Monday 28th September 7pm BST (this is free for everyone) RSVP here!

• Journaling Session: Wednesday 30th September 7pm BST everyone will work on their own journaling, 45mins muted and 15mins chat.

  Note: All Luma links to sign up for these are in THIS POST as well as the club chat, exclusive to paying members. All sessions are recorded and then available 24hrs later as posts here in the club archives.

Club Exclusive Archives

If you missed them, paid members can catch up on a few videos this month. Here are some of the most popular ones for the Autumn…

• Video: Edinburgh in Autumn Vlog & Sketchbook Tour

• Video: Scottish East Coast: Fife (Crail and St Andrews) in the Autumn

• Video: A Perfect Autumnal Solo Date (antiques, garden, Sheffield independent shops)

• Drawing Whimsical France (special retreat session)

• Drawing Joshua Tree Replay (with guest Melissa Lakey)

• Creating Jars of Joy Replay (with guest Holly Surplice)

• Drawing Still Life Masterpieces Replay (with guest Citla Flores)

• Video: My Bookbinding Process and a Plein Air Challenge Sketchbook Tour

• Creating Nature Journals: The Art of Noticing Replay (with guest Emma Carpendale)

• Drawing Little Women Replay (with guest Kayla Stark)

• Creating Barn Owl Gift Tags - Replay

• Video: Capturing Autumn - exploring and sketching Tickhill

• Drawing Visual Wanderings in Italy Replay (with guest Charlotte Hamilton)

• Drawing From Haarlem to Doncaster Replay (with guest La Scarlatte)

• Video: Decorating Sketchbook Covers

• Drawing NY in the Autumn (with guest Sam Dion Baker)

• Drawing Victorian Gardens Replay (with guest Mel Chadwick)

• Creating Tiny Tinned Treasures (with guest Margaux Kent from Peg & Awl)

THANK YOU!

As always, thanks for reading! Your support and encouragement mean so much! If you’re new around here, The Time Foragers’ Club is an opportunity to meet, celebrate the seasons and playfully create together. This is a free post for subscribers but you can also become a Time Foragers’ Club paid subscriber and meet up on Zoom 3 times a month (we draw, create and journal), receive a monthly video from my studio, PLUS chat with our blossoming creative community in our exclusive threads. We have occasional in-person meet-ups too.

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If you love all things antiques, old paper and art, once a year the club’s founding members receive a thoughtfully curated paper bundle in the post which includes some of my original art.

Please note prices for both tiers are going up tomorrow (2nd Sep 7pm BST) so if you’re interested, now’s a great time to lock your subscription in the current price.

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In next month’s issue: more Autumn treats and colours!

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Hello! Hope this finds you well!

This is a recording of our co-creating session which happened last night and was primarily focused on getting our desks ready for the new term.

Thanks to all who shared their projects and for chatting along as we all created.

We talked about the recent eclipse and summer stargazing, the arrival of Autumn, Barefoot in the Park (thanks Michelle!), You’ve Got Mail and so much more!

Our Next Drawing Session Poll

What theme would you like to draw in September? Please answer in the poll below.

Option 1

Vannes, the medieval town in Brittany.

Option 2

Paris in Autumn, with a focus on parcs (Parc de Sceaux and du Luxembourg) and food.

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Hello! Good morning! Hope you’re well. It’s August so happy August! My kids are well and truly off school now and we have a jam-packed summer so I will be taking the next 3 weeks off (more on that below).

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This week though, I was visiting my parents in Northern Ireland with my younger two which was stunning (and refreshing). There’s a lot of photos in this post, mainly from the area of Benone, Donegal and Eglinton: hills, coast, my sketchbook work, food and some more highlights. So let’s get started!

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My Creative Reset

As mentioned in my post last week, I was keen to dive deep into a creative reset while in Ireland. I took several sketchbooks and my trusted travel kit and ended up sketching quite a lot of loose landscapes, in a relax way using all sorts of greens and touches of neon pink. Fun!

I also ended up doing most of the things on my non-negotiable morning rituals as well as most of my ideas on the flexible list: swim in the sea, sketch and journal whenever I could, go for walks daily, generally slow down. And for this I’m thankful.

As a gift, below is a printable of the sheet I used (which I tweaked back in the spring). If you missed my post last week and you would also like a creative reset of your own this summer, this is for you! If you print this (please download first, then print for it to fit on one page), I’d love to see how you’ve filled it in!

Creative Reset Sheet Download

This Week’s Visual Journal Spread

This time-lapse shows you my process while creating this week’s spread in my 2026 visual journal sketchbook. I was very inspired this week by the landscapes/seascapes in Ireland. I took a small sketchbook and a larger one to Ireland: both Stillman & Birn, the Beta series.

Step 1 - I put down some tape and added a base of watercolour and Neocolor 2, adding swatches of colour I used on the bottom left of the sketchbook spread.

Step 2 - Once the first layer was dry, I added definition with Neocolor 2 and once that was done, I left the tape on until the end for that crisp effect.

Step 3 - Using my Kaweco fountain pen, I logged some of the magical mundane moments that happened during my visit to Ireland and continued to log events by illustrating little things that brought me joy. For example: the Donegal strawberries we had to eat, nasturtiums I spotted on my parents’ street, thistles in the local hedgerows.

More Magic Mundane Moments in Ireland

• sketching in the fields while the kids zoomed down the hill on dad’s handmade go-kart

• having a cup of tea with family - simple and good

• swimming in the ocean at Downings, Benone and Shrove - all quite cold but very much worth it

• picking up a spiced chai latte at the Sea Shed in Benone after a cold swim

• full breakfast at the Red Castle hotel

• first time visiting the original Irish weaving McNutt blanket shop in Downings after having had cushions and blankets by them for years

• the old traditional Irish pub in Downings which I had been to in winter but never in summer - still gorgeous and cozy

• all the vibrant colours: bright green, turquoise, reds, fushias, blues and greys

• eating white chocolate and raspberry scones from The Green Cat, Eglinton

• re-reading some of my very old correspondence and journals (bit cringe but sweet and also quite pleasing to know that at age 45, I now know myself a lot better)

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End of Term Club News

• Monday 3rd August and 24th August - I will be out of office/studio. ALL PAID SUBSCRIPTIONS WILL BE PAUSED for a summer break - if you’re already a paying subscriber, you don’t need to do anything, and you get full access to all the archives free of charge during this time - it’s a great time to catch up on any sessions/challenges/series you’ve missed. Plus I would like to take this opportunity to inform you that the club prices will be increasing in September and if you just stay as is, you won’t be charged that increase (basically, you do not need to do anything, this increase will only affect anyone who becomes a paying subscriber from September onwards). If you would like to join the fun and become a paying subscriber, please note that you cannot do this during the pause, you need to do this either prior to my break or after.

• Monday 24th August 7pm BST - New Term Prep Party: Co-Creating session (1hr) sharpen pencils, swatch new paints, share summer projects, perfect opportunity to share your summer bingo outcome. This is a chatty session throughout.

• Friday 28th August 7pm BST - Co-Journaling session (1hr) This is a silent journaling session (muted, bring your own music), with 15mins to chat at the end.

• Monday 1st September - Gazette Drop with all the dates for the month.

I’m already setting up dates for the new term - thinking sharpened pencils, dahlias and so much more. September and October are my absolute favourite time of year and I can’t wait to enjoy it with you! It’s going to be sooooo rich and lush and great!!

Note: all Zoom sign up Luma links are now in a post that is pinned at the top of the club page (look out for “Sign Ups for This Month”) and I also post every event in the club chat (which is exclusive to paying members). Head to these Luma links to sign up, they calculate your time zone and it will remind you a day prior to the call. Super clever!

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Thanks so much for reading! If you’re new around here, welcome!

🍋 Join us and carve out time to be creative with us in the club! The Time Foragers’ Club is an opportunity to meet together, celebrate the seasons and create.

📮 Find out what’s included in the Founding Members’ subscription

🍊 Catch more behind-the-scenes peeks over @helen.c.stark

🍓 Have a fantastic summer and I’ll see you soon! xx

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Hello!

Hope you’re well.

This week we’ve had so many goldfinches appear in our back garden. The cornflowers attract them and they also love the silver birch. Eating alfresco becomes extra exciting when we have such wonderful visitors. In the studio, I’ve been wrapping up loose ends, both metaphorically (admin, emails etc) and literally packaging the last few paintings from the Bright Hope collection to be shipped. I was delighted to have received some images of the artwork safely arrived and already hanging up in their new homes.

Back in the spring, I shared this sheet and sharing it again today as I’m about to embark on a summer creative reset - if you would like to print it too for these summer months.

My Methodology

For this summer creative reset, I plan on visiting my parents in Northern Ireland for a few days. For this, I have a few non-negotiable morning rituals and a few more flexible plans for each day: I will sketch for the joy of it, swim in the sea, chat with family over a cup of tea, read Irish folk tales, go for walks daily and do as much journaling as I want.

A Gift For You

As a gift, below is a printable of the sheet which I tweaked back in the spring. If you would also like a creative reset at some point this summer, this is for you!

Creative Reset Sheet Download

If you print this, I’d love to see how you’ve filled it in!

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This Week’s Visual Journal Spread

This time-lapse shows you my process while creating this week’s spread in my 2026 visual journal sketchbook. I never take this sketchbook physically out of the studio, all my other “play” sketchbooks go out with me on my explorations and adventures and then come back to the studio to inform this weekly ritual. I often use those “play” sketchbooks as references for these weekly visual journals, such as this week, as I sketched in several sketchbooks throughout the week.

In terms of colours, I was very inspired this week by the landscapes/seascapes in The Odyssey and the colours in my garden (though everything is very dry) and the fruit we’re enjoying as summer snacks.

Step 1 - I put down some tape and added a base of watercolour and Neocolor 2, adding the swatches of colour I used on the bottom left of the sketchbook spread.

Step 2 - Once the first layer was dry, I added definition with Neocolor 2 and once that was done, I carefully took off the tape for that crisp effect.

Step 3 - Using my Kaweco fountain pen, on the top left page, I logged events that happened during each day this week, using a piece of paper to lean my hand on in order to not smudge. On the right page, I continued to log events by illustrating little things that brought me joy. For example: posting and receiving postcards, my research on Ancient Greek ceramic pots, our homemade strawberry milkshake, seeing the pumpkin grow in our garden, etc.

The First Week of The Summer Break

• early morning walks when the air is cool and beautiful

• spotting the goldfinches on our cornflowers in the garden

• drawing stunning Derbyshire with the club and Sara Boccaccini Meadows, the replay is now in the club archives HERE if you missed it and would like to see some of Sara’s creative practice

• drawing our garden pumpkin flowers

• seeing the cornflower, jasmine, tomatoes and apples growing in our garden

• sorting out the boys’ clothes and toys then dropping some off at our local Barnardo’s charity shop

• being out on a date with Mike to see The Odyssey at the cinema

• researching pottery such as this one with the ship of Odysseus passing Sirens

• listening to The Rest is History podcast’s series on the Founding Fathers, starting with this episode on Washington

More Joyful Posts

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Thanks so much for reading! If you’re new around here, welcome!

🍋 Join us and carve out time to be creative with us in the club! The Time Foragers’ Club is an opportunity to meet together, celebrate the seasons and create.

📮 Find out what’s included in the Founding Members’ subscription

🍊 Catch more behind-the-scenes peeks over @helen.c.stark

🍓 see you soon! xx

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Things mentioned during this drawing session:

• Sara’s Substack:

• Things You Can Do written by Eduardo Garcia, illustrated by Sara

• the book: Buzz (a child’s guide to bugs, bees and how to spot them)

• the Edinburgh shop Wild Fungarium on Randalf Place and the Kids event: 25th July

• Bridgeton Artist Series more on this here

• Sara’s wonderful website and portfolio

• Hathersage Lido

• David Mellor

• Colemans Deli

• Sara’s phone cases with Casefy

Below are some of Sara’s beautiful photography which we used for the drawing session as reference as well as some of her Derbyshire-inspired artwork.

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Part 1 of the Timelapse with a focus on sports day, packaging brown tape, my live with Stacie, postcards and Bonne Maman jam jar.

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Highlights of the week

• the general buzz that comes with the end of this academic year

• going live with here on Substack on Bastille Day. Here is the replay (free for all) in which we chat about Paris, places to see, the French retreat next May and our summer plans: Bastille Day Drawing

• the best homemade strawberry milkshake yet (made with hand picked strawberries as seen in this post)

• writing this pen pal forum and feeling the excitement when I posted it (more on this below)

• finally making time to fill in the summer bingo sheet (avail. in the Summer Gazette which has lots of fun links, club news, as well as special treats: a gifted word-search sheet to print at home) though I’m not finished yet, still need to add a few more dreams for this summer

• the roses elegantly leaning over the neighbours’ fence

• sports days, school shows and kids’ parties

• confetti at said parties

• watching the kids write thank you cards to their teachers

• meeting Italy retreat participants individually on Zoom (the retreat is coming up rapidly after the summer break, 14-19 SEPTEMBER 2026), every single one of them seems sooooo lovely, I cannot wait to hang out and continue our chats in Italy

• being at the post office, sending post cards to the first 5 to participate in the postcard pen pal forum this week as well as other paper treats - I love our post office and the folks who work there, I also love seeing what stamps will be used (this week we had King Charles and moths)

Part 2 of the Timelapse: adding more journaling and lettering a seasonal quote by Louisa May Alcott, drawing Le Consulat and our neighbours’ roses.

For this bit, I used some light orange posca pen which I had in the studio from years ago. The idea was to make the tape look a little like some lace. Think it’s quite cute!

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After months of overthinking it, this week I launched a pen pal forum for paying club members! Dozens of members have taken part and many postcards are already in the post across the world! I went down this rabbit hole and stayed there for quite a bit. Next trip to London will involved an extended in-person visit to the Postal Museum. And I think a few folk from this club might be interested in joining! I also took a trip to my local post office to send a postcard to the first 5 to take part, as well as some birthday cards and paper bundles for Portugal retreat pals. More on the pen pal forum here.

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End of Term Drawing Session

Drawing Session: Summer Hike in Derbyshire with incredible print designer and illustrator Sara Boccaccini Meadows

Date: Monday 20th July 7pm BST

For any paying club members, this Monday is our last drawing session before the summer break. Celebrate the end of term with us by drawing summer hikes in the rolling hills of Derbyshire with me and Sara Boccaccini Meadows. Bring along your favourite materials and a cool drink! Sara will share her creative process and tips to fill up your sketchbook page. Together we will all draw landscapes from gorgeous photography on Zoom. Sara has recently started a Substack called . Find out more about Sara’s stunning work here. I can’t wait for this and I hope you can join too!

Sign Up: For this event, please sign up for here.

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More Joyful Posts

• a chat celebrating summer colours with my friend Raj

• 25 Ways to Fill Up Your Summer Sketchbook

• a chat celebrating gardens with my friend Emma

• previous visual journals in which I share a painting of Cezanne and an obsession with cherries or another one which was very orangey!!

SUMMER PAUSE: I’m going to pause all paying subscriptions from Monday 3th August until Monday 24th August - I will be out of office/studio for a summer break. If you are a paying subscriber, you get full access to all the archives free of charge for that whole period - it’s a great time to catch up on any sessions/challenges/series you’ve missed. Sadly no-one can join the club during that period but we’ll be back full force, with a sharpening pencils session on time for 1st September!! More info in the gazette!

The Time Foragers’ Club is an opportunity to meet, grow, celebrate the seasons and create together!

🍋 Carve out time to be creative with us in the club

📮 Find out what’s included in the Founding Members’ subscription

🍊 Catch more behind-the-scenes peeks over @helen.c.stark

Thanks for joining our chat on Bastille Day!

A few references during the call:

• marking 10 years since the Nice attack in 2016

• the pen pal forum post Launching Summer Postcard Correspondence

• the Visual Journaling Retreat which I’m teaching and is happening next May near Angers - Stacie will be my teaching helper. All single occupancy rooms are sold out but you can add your name to the waiting list. There are 3 spots left in a shared room in the coach house and the farmhouse. Both houses have their own living rooms and kitchen with plenty cute space

• Stacie will be launching a gouache series in the autumn and has a podcast on YouTube Art After Dark in which Kristi and Stacie talk about the real struggles of creating art after dark (along with a full-time job)

• Ile de Ré and going analogue for a family trip

• Musee Delacroix (cute little garden)

• the Deyrolle museum in Paris (butterflies, taxidermy)

• Musee d’Orsay (Impressionists)

• being in awe of the size of Manet’s Balcony

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During this call….

Stacie created this….

Also during this call, Jenine drew Le Consulat and Stacie’s Parisian cappucino from the photos we posted to the club chat prior to the LIVE. So fun! Thanks Jenine for sending this in!

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Thanks so much for chatting with me!!! Can’t wait to hang out next year in France together!!!

xx

Thanks so much for watching! If you’re new around here, welcome!

🍋 Join us and carve out time to be creative with us in the club! The Time Foragers’ Club is an opportunity to meet together, celebrate the seasons and create.

📮 Find out what’s included in the Founding Members’ subscription (it includes even more snail mail!!)

🍊 Catch more behind-the-scenes peeks over @helen.c.stark

🌸 See you soon! xx

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A few weeks back, when I suggested in my seasonal post 25 Ways to Fill Up Your Summer Sketchbook, “idea number 13: use a sketchbook page to keep a log of summer postcards received by drawing them (this probably implies you sending a few postcards also)”, one of the responses was “I wish people still sent postcards.” This got me thinking…

Today, I’m sitting at my desk, here in Yorkshire. Before me is a very happy pile of postcards which I’ve recently received from friends around the world - old friends and new ones too. The visual journaling retreat I taught in Portugal a few weeks ago brought like-minded souls together and one of the best outcomes (which I could never have foretold) was that one of the participants set up a pen-pal plan for us. We’ve just received our first post and it was wonderful!

The Tradition

The tradition of corresponding by postcard began in the late 19th century as an informal alternative to the traditional letter.

In this article, the English Heritage notes:

Postcards were introduced to Britain in 1870 and became an instant success. For the first time, the nation could send informal, cheap and easy correspondence rather than a long time-consuming letter.

In 1871, around 75 million postcards were sent in Britain and by 1910 over 800 million were being sent each year. For a population of almost 45 million at that time, that’s an average of just under 18 postcards being sent per person annually. If you write a postcard today you might talk about what you’ve been up to, how the weather has been, a fun anecdote and 100 years ago it was no different. The traditional postcard served a lighter purpose too: letting friends and family know what they were missing while you enjoyed your holiday.

Read more on this: Postcards, The Postal Museum and Census 2021.

Truth be told, ever since I was a little girl, I have collected postcards everywhere I go. This is probably because throughout my childhood and teenage years, I used to send a summer postcard to all of my close friends. I would also receive some back and build a collection - I had a box in which I stored them and loved reading them from time to time. This tradition continued year after year. Being a romantic at heart, my hope is to keep the tradition going for a little longer (one small purchase always makes a difference).

My studio wall is covered with postcard art prints by Matisse and Van Gogh, as well as postcards with fun typography, photography, colourful book covers, the list goes on.

In coming days, I will find a new home for the new postcards I’ve recently received and this will probably be up on my studio wall. There is so much joy in receiving postcards and in curating my very own little gallery. But I could also get a box back out… more on this soon.

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This has brought me to consider a way to facilitate something similar here in the Time Foragers’ Club. We are, after all, a club of friends who meet online to create together, why not send each other paper treats, such as postcards as well?

So to help kick off the fun, I’ll send the first 5 participants a handwritten postcard from Yorkshire in coming days. Here’s how to take part!

The Time Foragers’ Summer Postcard Forum

How To Take Part

• answer these personalised questions in the comments below (please copy&paste):

  1. Your first name

  2. The country you currently live in

  3. Your current favourite type of ice cream

  4. What you love most about summertime

• find someone to contact and share postal details with (message them via private Substack messages)

• contact as many pen pals as you’d like

• send a postcard to your new pen pals in coming 3 weeks

• if you are contacted by too many people, it’s fine to keep them as potential contacts for our Autumn postal forum (this will not be the last) or simply say ‘sorry, I’ve sent as many as I wanted to this summer’ - 100% ok! You can edit your comment to say this. Another option is to delete your comment altogether below so that no-one else contacts you this time!

Important NB: Of course we want this to be fun but please do not share personal information (your specific postal address) to anyone that you haven’t interacted with or seen around for long in the club, unless you feel comfortable doing this. Since I posted this forum, several people have joined. A good tip is to have a look at their past activity, likes, etc to check they are legit but also you may choose to ask a local friend or other alternative postal address to receive post on your behalf until you know a little more. I cannot take responsibility for this part of the penpal forum, so please always be vigilant! 💌

Some Complimentary Reading to Inspire

The Day the Crayon Came Home by Drew Daywalt and Oliver Jeffers

On Holiday, Remembering Yesterday’s Holidays with Paul Atterbury

What type of postcard?

This is a small list of the type of postcards you could send, just to get us thinking!! But of course, feel free to add your own ideas.

• a favourite spot you’ve recently visited

• a print of a painting by a favourite artist

• a seasonal illustrated recipe

• a poem or a quote

• the cheesiest 1980’s tourist destination

• a book cover

• a movie fan poster

• an illustrated map

• or you could create your very own…

Or Create Your Own Postcard

If you’re feeling bold, all you need for this is some card (or a pack of watercolour postcards like shown below) and some materials, and you can fill up the card with your favourite colours!

We will explore more of this in the autumn but to keep to the summer theme, here are a few ideas:

• colour swatches that remind you of a place you’ve recently visited

• a sunset

• the view from your window

• summer wildflowers

• coastal stripes on a t-shirt

• a landscape

• ice cream cones and different colours of scoops

• palm trees

• anything that you’ve seen during this season

I hope this will bring you great joy this summer and that you can find a pen pal or two to correspond with in coming weeks.

Remember, the first 5 to take part will get a postcard from me!! I can’t wait to get these in the post!!!

See you over in the comments below (please note that the comments for this post are exclusive to paying members but you can become a paying subscriber by clicking the button)!!

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Thanks so much for reading! If you’re new around here, welcome!

🍋 Join us and carve out time to be creative with us in the club! The Time Foragers’ Club is an opportunity to meet together, celebrate the seasons and create.

📮 Find out what’s included in the Founding Members’ subscription (it includes even more snail mail!!)

🍊 Catch more behind-the-scenes peeks over @helen.c.stark

🌸 See you soon! xx

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Hello! I hope this finds you well.

It got hot here again and so I moved my studio to my back garden where I could sit in the morning shade. Much better for my mental health than being inside with a fan on. I typed this up in my studio later on in the evening, when the air was cooler and I could handle sitting at my desk for a few minutes!

In the end, I’m very glad I did this. I sketched our garden chair and our vine and lavender which leans against our garage. And in the process enjoyed watching butterflies, birds and bees, plus the occasional breeze.

I’m sharing some of the process below with 3 short videos.

How’s your week been?

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In the Studio This Week

It’s been very busy with Zoom calls, video editing and packaging original pieces. Over the past few months, we’ve sourced large cardboard boxes from bicycle shops and any friends who have recently purchased a tv!! Last year for the Ode To Charlotte Collection I wasn’t this prepared and had to actually purchase cardboard boxes which felt completely wrong.

Some of the artwork from the Bright Hope Collection has already arrived at their new homes and I’ve received photos!!! This is so very special to me.

If you missed them, the videos I released this week are:

• Finishing Travel Sketchbooks with Paper Treasures

• Paris Sketchbook Tour and Matisse Exhibition Take-Aways

And don’t forget to check the gazette:

• Summer Gazette which has lots of fun links, club news, as well as special treats: a gifted wordsearch and a summer bingo sheet to print at home.

Today’s Visual Journals

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📷 Visiting Lincoln 📷

This was our first time in Lincoln, we’ve been meaning to go for a very long time. We first walked around the centre. Highlights there were pastries, fudge and sausage rolls. The cathedral was very beautiful and much larger than we’d expected. We had a picnic on the lawn, inside the castle walls and then had a guided tour round the castle. We were all in awe of the Magna Carta (1215) and Charter of the Forest (1217). To think that the ink lasted this long! You can read more about the Lincoln castle here: we also visited the Victorian prison and walked the medieval walls.

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🍓 Mundane Magic of the Week 🍓

• picking strawberries at our local fruit farm

• making strawberry milkshake with (some of) said strawberries

• spotting 3 types of butterflies in our garden over lunch

• discovering Lincoln with my visiting parents

• watching Wimbledon on TV, like this match which I only got a glimpse of

• meeting some of the Italy retreat participants on a one-to-one Zoom chat, more to come next week

• drawing my visual journals outside in the shade

• trying every type of ice cream available at our local co-op which led me to wonder…. what is your current favourite ice-cream? we’re hoping to make strawberry ice cream tomorrow

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Strawberry Farm PYO

On Friday after school, we all went strawberry picking, got really hot and came back home for a very cooling strawberry milkshake. We’ve got quite a lot in the freezer now and hope to make a batch of strawberry ice cream tomorrow. Will report back.

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💌 I N V I T A T I O N 💌

Drawing Live on Bastille Day

If you’re free to celebrate with us, don’t miss my Bastille Day Drawing Live conversation with on Tuesday. We’ll draw some of our favourite French things and will post a few reference images prior to it in the club chat if you’d also like to have a go! You can also pop in the comments to say ‘bonjour!!’ from wherever you are!

Wishing you a happy weekend!

Talk soon xx

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The Time Foragers’ Club is an opportunity to meet, grow, celebrate the seasons and create together!

🍋 Carve out time to be creative with us in the club

📮 Find out what’s included in the Founding Members’ subscription

🍊 Catch more behind-the-scenes peeks over @helen.c.stark

A Few More Joyful Posts

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In today’s video, I share:

• how I added paper treasures which I collected in an envelop during my travels to Portugal

• how I drew thumbnails of my favourite sketches from the sketchbook to help me decide which one would make the cover

• a Timelapse of my painting the cover (I chose the Lisbon tiles)

• a gentle flip through of the finished version of my Portugal travel sketchbook

I also refer back to this post in which I shared my journey to Portugal, some of my visual journaling retreat which happened there and the journey back. If you haven’t seen it, I’d start there!!

The materials I loved collecting for this project include:

• postcards

• restaurant business cards

• artisanal local wool shop label

• local sweetie wrapper

• strawberry napkin

• hotel, factory and museum leaflets

• coasters

• rug factory fabric labels

• local chocolate wrappers

• train tickets

• banana sticker on a drawn banana

• salad box sticker

• peeled off ginger beer and sparkling water bottle labels

• A Vida Portuguesa shop stickers

• pottery shop stickers

• handwritten cards addressed to me from retreat participants

• receipts

• precious handwritten notes

• interesting typography on cardboard packaging

• sugar paper bags

• tea bags packaging

• coffee roasters leaflet

• handwritten note on back of receipts “Pastel Nata”

• old paper ephemera glued as a base to draw/paint on

• a word search I did while travelling

• cute post-it notes

• the cover of the visual journaling retreat booklet which I designed

• antique paper envelopes

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The materials I loved using in this process:

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Bonjour!!

In this video, you will find a sketchbook tour of two days I recently spent in Paris, along with some footage of the Matisse exhibition at Le Grand Palais which will run until the 26th July.

This HUGE exhibition focuses on his work between 1941-1954 and shows sketchbooks, letter correspondence, oil paintings on canvas, graphite sketches, decoupage, plans for stained glass windows and much more. Of course, my videography does not do it justice but hopefully it will offer a glimpse of the joy one can experience when seeing artwork by Henri Matisse.

The video also shows:

• my travel notes, scribbles, journals while on the train to London and to Paris on the Eurostar

• 16 ideas for your sketchbook on a plan B trip in Paris

• clips of Paris

• clips of the Matisse exhibition shop

• sketch notes on Amy Poehler’s Good Hang with Billie Eilish

• a book and a magazine I brought back from the exhibition shop

• how I create a cute envelop for my collected bits of paper treasures which I picked up at the museum

I also reference:

• my sketchbook which is by Stillman&Birn, the Beta series

• the visual journals I created the week of the trip

• Tracy Emin’s new life on The Great Women Artists podcast

• Marin Montagut’s shop near the Park du Luxembourg

• Henri Matisse’s Park du Luxembourg, 1901

• a delightful shop window in the Crillion hotel lobby

• My Visual Journaling Retreat in France next May

Below I also include photos of the area I stayed in as well as photos of the references I used as inspiration during and after my trip and a photo of the 16 ideas I mentioned in the video.

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Hello! I hope this finds you well.

How’s your week been?

If you missed it, the Summer Gazette was published on the 1st July with lots of fun links, club news, as well as special treats: a gift word search and summer bingo sheet to print at home.

This week I went to Edinburgh to wrap up my solo exhibition at the Gleneagles Townhouse and while I was there, we had a Time Foragers’ Club meet-up!

The Materials I used today

Taking off the tape

I sometimes add tape like this before putting a layer of paint down so that the edges are very crisp - this gives the whole spread a clean look, more reminiscent of a newspaper article or gazette. This week I also wrote in sentences in a much smaller handwriting because I had so much to get down.

My Solo Show at Gleneagles Townhouse

It’s hard to believe that it’s over! I worked on this collection throughout the winter months and its colours and theme provided so much joy! The goal was to have this body of work ready for a 3-months solo show, which started beginning of April. I wrote about this collection here. It’s been such an incredible experience! I can’t thank Gleneagles Townhouse enough for this wonderful opportunity.

On Tuesday, we wrapped every single piece up and brought them carefully back to Yorkshire. The next step will be to package and ship them off to their new owners. I’m so thrilled to be sending these to Ireland, Cyprus, various places in the USA and in the UK. I’m so very grateful for the love this collection has received from staff at Gleneagles, friends and family who came to see the show, the Gleneagles guests who messaged me and so many of you who went especially to see it in the Lobby 37.

A stop at Dean Village

I took a walk to Dean Village to sketch - this was after going to Modern 2 for a Joan Eardley exhibition: The Nature of Painting. I’ve selected a few of her paintings to share with you! Seeing her dynamic marks and the variation in her brush strokes was so inspiring. I also loved that she sometimes used sand and grit and even boat paint to create thick and viscous effects.

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Some highlights of Edinburgh

1. sitting at Leo’s Beanery and sketching the architecture

2. roses in Stockbridge

3. Dean Village

4. Just outside Modern 2 after seeing the Joan Eardley exhibition

5. view of Edinburgh from Waverley

6. the floors of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral

7. outside Soderburg on Middle Meadow Walk

8. ice cream from Alandas Gelato

9. cute flowers I spotted by an old street in New Town

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The CLUB MEET-UP

This meet-up was so lovely and fun. I talk about it a little in the gazette (here) and also wrote about it in her notes:

I had such a great time last weekend meeting the lovely Helen C Stark and other members of The Time Foragers’ Club - my first ever in person Substack meet up!

We saw her gorgeous paintings in Gleneagles Townhouse, did some sketching, had lunch and browsed the excellent second-hand market at Out of the Blue Drill Hall. On the way back into town, one of my favourite parts of the day happened - I helped save a bee on Leith Walk! I saw it upside down on the pavement and picked it up with a leaflet given to me by Vivien Minto whose beautiful dachshunds are in the photo ❤️

It ended up crawling onto my fingers and staying there until we reached a pretty little vintage shop where a very kind lady working there gave it some flowers to sit on and some sugar water which revived it. Thank you Helen for sending this photo of me putting the flowers in a vase so the bee can keep resting until they’re ready to fly away 💛

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Wishing you a happy weekend! I'm off to pick strawberries at our local fruit farm and hopefully sit down to watch Coco Gauff play at Wimbledon (on TV, someday I’ll go in person).

Talk soon xx

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The Time Foragers’ Club is an opportunity to meet, grow, celebrate the seasons and create together!

🍋 Carve out time to be creative with us in the club

📮 Find out what’s included in the Founding Members’ subscription

🍊 Catch more behind-the-scenes peeks over @helen.c.stark

A Few More Joyful Posts

| Issue N21 | 1st July 2026 |

SUMMER FUN

Summertime has well and truly arrived with all its colours and hues. Also with that are some creative ideas. Why not…

• Read 25 Ways to Fill up Your Summer Sketchbook and let us know in the club chat if you manage any or ALL of them

• Search for summer words by printing out this special summer word search specially made for you (pdf available below)!

  

  

  Summer Wordsearch 2026

  217KB ∙ PDF file

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  Download

• Fill up this summer bingo sheet. This was a hit last summer so we’re doing it again! Consider all the summer activities you’d like to forage time to do. Then once you’ve done them, cross them out with a fun colour or washi tape. Treat yourself when you manage 5 in a row! We would love to see your bingo grid so please share with the club in the chat (pdf available below).

  

  

  Summer Bingo 2026

  215KB ∙ PDF file

  Download

  Download

• Try a new summer recipe, like this strawberry cordial which tastes SO good with sparkling water! Have fun experimenting.

• Catch up on all previous Gazettes and Drawing sessions since the club launched. Can you believe this is the 21st issue of the gazette?

• Draw Whimsical France (free) as we celebrated the launch of the bookings for the next Visual Journaling retreat in France, May 2027 with Uptrek - all the retreat details here, only 3 spots left!!

• Draw details of your garden or any green space near you. Watch this LIVE chat (free) between Emma and Helen on the topic.

• Draw your own summer still life with anything you can find at home. Watch this LIVE chat (free) between Raj and Helen on the topic.

• Draw summer coastal scenes and landscapes from an island just off the west coast of France, called île de Ré. Watch the replay here. And below is some gorgeous artwork created by club members during the call.

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MONTHLY REPORT

June Co-Drawing Session

Last month, for our co-drawing session, we drew butterflies with the wonderful . Thanks to all who joined! The replay is now in the archives HERE.

Jessica says:

Loved the butterflies session! So fun to play with color

and materials with this subject matter.

Thanks Jessica! And below are some of the artwork we made!

June Sketchbook Tour Video

The video was a tour of Helen’s Italian sketchbooks - brought back from her residency in Mompeo, north of Rome, back in 2024 and her visual journaling retreat there in 2025. There is a free preview of photos and video in the post here.

June Co-Creating Session

During this crafty creative session, we all worked on our personal projects and chatted our way through it. The replay is now available HERE. Some of us drew tiles inspired by a recent trip to Portugal.

Club Meet-Up in Edinburgh

On Saturday 27th June, we had a club meet-up in Edinburgh. Together we walked from Gleneagles Townhouse (where we saw Helen’s Bright Hope collection on display) down to Drill Hall in Leith where they were hosting a monthly flea market so we all had a good look around and bought a few bargains. After this, we sat down for lunch and sketched in their cafe area. It was so nice to meet and chat about creativity, home renovations, our dreams for the future and materials. We then walked back up to Princes Street. Some of us enjoyed a phenomenal ice cream here!

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PICK & MIX

• The Superpower that’s Teaching me to See | Orla Stevens on YouTube

• Turning antique and schoolbooks into Art | Country Living on YouTube

• Shopping for stationery in NYC | Rajiv Surendra on YouTube

• Pleasure Piers of the Victorian Era | Faces of Ancient Europe on YouTube

• Week in my Life in Rural Devon | Ruby Granger on YouTube

• Also if you haven’t seen it, the Sense & Sensibility trailer - thoughts on this in the club chat soon!

Poet’s Corner

Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare

(Psss… did you know you can listen to the gazette and enjoy this poem being read to you? Click on the listening option at the top right of the post)

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?

Thou art more lovely and more temperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,

And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;

And every fair from fair sometime declines,

By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;

But thy eternal summer shall not fade,

Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;

Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,

When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

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CLUB DATES for July-August

• Wednesday 8th July 7pm BST - Video Release: Portugal Sketchbook Tour and Paris Vlog (including the Matisse Exhibition at Le Grand Palais)

• Monday 20th July 7pm BST - Drawing Session: Summer Hike in Derbyshire with guest Sara Boccaccini Meadows

• Monday 3rd August and 24th August - I will be out of office/studio. ALL PAID SUBSCRIPTIONS WILL BE PAUSED for a summer break - if you’re already a paying subscriber, you don’t need to do anything, and you get full access to all the archives free of charge during this time - it’s a great time to catch up on any sessions/challenges/series you’ve missed. Plus I would like to take this opportunity to inform you that the club prices will be increasing in September and if you just stay as is, you won’t be charged that increase (basically, you do not need to do anything, this increase will only affect anyone who becomes a paying subscriber from September onwards). If you would like to join the fun and become a paying subscriber, please note that you cannot do this during the pause, you need to do this either prior to my break or after.

• Monday 24th August 7pm BST - New Term Prep Party: Co-Creating session (1hr) sharpen pencils, swatch new paints, share summer projects, perfect opportunity to share your summer bingo outcome. This is a chatty session throughout.

• Friday 28th August 7pm BST - Co-Journaling session (1hr) This is a silent journaling session (muted, bring your own music), with 15mins to chat at the end.

• Monday 1st September - Gazette Drop with all the dates for the month.

I’m already setting up dates for the new term - thinking sharpened pencils, dahlias and so much more. September and October are my absolute favourite time of year and I can’t wait to enjoy it with you! It’s going to be sooooo rich and lush and great!!

Note: all Zoom sign up Luma links are now in a post that is pinned at the top of the club page (look out for “Sign Ups for This Month”) and I also post every event in the club chat (which is exclusive to paying members). Head to these Luma links to sign up, they calculate your time zone and it will remind you a day prior to the call. Super clever!

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Club Exclusive Archives

If you missed them, here are some of the most popular monthly videos and replays of recorded Zoom sessions, exclusive to paying members

• Travel Sketchbooks part 1 - In The Studio

• Travel Sketchbooks part 2 - Lake District

• Joshua Tree Drawing Replay (with guest Melissa Lakey)

• My Bookbinding Process and a Plein Air Challenge Sketchbook Tour

• The Art of Noticing Replay (with guest Emma Carpendale)

• Drawing Little Women Replay (with guest Kayla Stark)

• Decorating Sketchbook Covers

• Drawing Victorian Gardens Replay (with guest Mel Chadwick)

Club Notes

This is a free post for subscribers but you can also become a Time Foragers’ Club paid subscriber and meet up on Zoom 3 times a month (we draw, create and journal) AND also watch a monthly video (from my studio) PLUS chat with our blossoming creative community in our exclusive threads. We have occasional in-person meet-ups too. If you love all things antiques, old paper and art, once a year the club’s Founding Members receive a thoughtfully curated paper bundle in the post which includes some of my original art. The prices for the Time Foragers’ Club will increase on 1st September so now may be a good time to subscribe if you’re on the fence (or ‘swithering’ as they say in Edinburgh) as you will not need to pay more when the price goes up.

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Thank you for reading the 21st issue of the Time Foragers’ Club gazette. The next issue will drop September 1st with freshly sharpened pencils! Have a wonderful summer! xx

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Journaling Session

On this very hot day in the UK, we took time to journal for 45mins, then had a chat to share what we did, how it went.

Thanks to all who joined this journaling session. If you’re watching this on replay, we hope you’ll enjoy this time to journal. Get comfy, grab a drink and your favourite journaling materials and turn on your own music. Use this video as a timer for 45mins!

A few Journaling Prompts

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In this video, I’m sharing 2 sketchbooks: I took both with me to Italy to the same post in Mompeo, north of Rome. Both of these sketchbooks are made by Pith and are from the series Lumia. The first I put together during my art residency at Le Mole Sul Farfa and the 2nd was during the retreat which I taught in the same venue a year later.

Below are some videos and photos from both trips. Enjoy!

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Hello! I hope this finds you well.

Normally I write these weekly visual journals on a Friday but yesterday I finished writing a post I’d had in the works for a while: 25 ways to fill up your summer sketchbook. I’m glad it’s out there now, just on time for the first day of summer and my hope is that it will spark ideas and bring you joy.

In other news, I went to Paris this week!

After months of anticipation, I finally got to see the Matisse exhibition at Le Grand Palais which I will share more thoroughly in my monthly video (July). In the meantime, here are a few of my favourite snaps from the expo.

Thankful Notes

Plan A: travel to Paris via London by train, stay at my sister’s in Paris for 3 nights, visit by foot the best stationery shops in Paris with her, have a club meet up to sketch, explore some more and see the Matisse exhibition.

Plan B: travel to Paris via London by train, my sister and her family came down with a tummy bug just as I arrived so - change of plan - I booked myself into a local b&b and while I could have gone into town, I had technically been exposed to the bug so to be safe I preferred to lay low at the b&b. In the end, this was rather pleasant as I had a whole day filling up my sketchbook with all sorts of fun things (I’ve listed a few in the sketchbook pages below). I did cancel the sketch meet-up (everyone understood). And I did get to see the Matisse exhibition. It was incredible! My sister and family did recover quickly, I was fine and at the tail end of my trip I got to hang out with them on their balcony with a glass of wine.

Hope you have a great week ahead! Club members, the monthly video will be released next week and we have our journaling session also. I’ve popped the sign-up links in a post (pinned at the top). Can’t wait!!!

Talk soon! xx

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The Time Foragers’ Club is an opportunity to meet, grow, celebrate the seasons and create together!

🍋 Carve out time to be creative with us in the club

📮 Find out what’s included in the Founding Members’ subscription

🍊 Catch more behind-the-scenes peeks over @helen.c.stark

A Few More Joyful Posts

Subscribe now

The Magic Mundane of My Week

• drawing the cute house in Winston

• making banana-raspberry milkshakes with stripy straw

• using the blue ArtGraf I bought in Lisbon - obsessed by its vividness

• our garden roses are pure whimsy just now

• it’s officially peek strawberry season

• we went to a friends’ 50th bday party on Saturday and the Brambley Hedge cake was heavenly

• the irises by the canal - that yellow, so bright

• our club’s co-creating session was so cozy, we all carved out that precious time to be creative - I was finishing up my Portugal sketchbook so that I can film a sketchbook tour before the summer break

• my studio wall makes me happy these days

• we all went for a walk in the woods on Sunday afternoon with church friends and noticed the foxgloves are out - majestic

• a latte from The Leys last week, the foamy heart made me smile

David Hockney (1937-2026)

Lessons from David Hockney: a few weeks back my pal RAJ KAUR and I co-hosted this session which was so joyful and colour-full. Both of us wanted to open this to anyone who’d like to spend a bit of quiet time drawing this weekend, in memory of him and all he brought to the world. We’d love to see your tributes, if you’d like to share.

It’s an odd time. He’s given us so much! We don’t quite know what to do with this sadness but be sad. It was raining here in Yorkshire this morning when I heard the news. I felt like the rain was quite fitting. And now the sun’s come out and the colours are bright. Just like he was.

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NEWS: VISUAL JOURNALING RETREAT, May 2027

I will be teaching my 4th visual journaling retreat in May 2027, in the French Loire Valley. It’s been months of planning and I’m so glad to be at this point. You can see all the whimsical details in this Uptrek link. I would love to see some of you there! I also made this little video as an announcement and we had an entire Zoom session last week dedicated to drawing France. It was so fun! Thanks so much to all who’ve shared and re-stacked these posts! Already 11 spots have been booked! It’s so exciting!

Where: in the Loire Valley, France

When: 23-30th MAY 2027

Why: to sketch and journal together in a completely dreamy setting

BOOKING INFO HERE

Together with members of the club, we recently drew scenes of Paris, French chateaux and French still life to celebrate the launch of the retreat in France in May 2027. This full replay will stay free for all to rewatch for 2 weeks then it’ll go into the club archives. Here’s a little clip of it!

In memory of David Hockney (1937-2026)

🍋 Carve out time to be creative with us in the club!

🍊 Catch more behind-the-scenes peeks over @helen.c.stark!

See you soon!

Helen xx