More about Gillian Hewitt

As founder of Imaginaturalists, Gillian wishes to inspire a love of science in children by engaging them with creative expression and experiential learning. Gillian graduated from the University of Sydney with a Bachelor of Science (Honours). She has worked as a research assistant in several marine biology laboratories at the Universities of Sydney, Murdoch, and Western Australia until she was lucky enough to travel to Casey Station, Antarctica with the Australian Antarctic Division's Human Impacts Team as a Research Assistant. She then completed an Honours thesis " Reproduction and the Evolution of Development in Abatus sp., Marsupiate Echinoids Endemic to Antarctica.

After moving to Maitland, NSW she leapt at the opportunity to combine her two passions, science, and art. She undertook a Bachelor of Natural History Illustration at the University of Newcastle, graduating in 2018, with Distinction and being awarded a Faculty Medal for The Faculty of Education and Arts in 2018.

She has been commissioned to undertake public artworks around Maitland, including a 55m long Australian birds’ mural at the Maitland City Library. Her illustrations have been published in botanical books and scientific papers and theses.

Gillian believes art is the language of science! Without the visual communication provided by illustrations and graphics, scientific concepts are often very complex to understand. Through Imaginaturalists she encourages children to utilise their powers of observation and gives them the skills to express these through fun and creative means. She inspires her students to stop, slow down and look at the world around them. Imaginaturalists introduces them to the building blocks of scientific enquiry with fun, creative, practical cross-curricular learning that continues to increase their confidence in all aspects of their education.