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Hello, I’m Maria
I’m a Darwin-based artist, educator and author creating Montessori-informed art resources, picture books and workshops for children, families and educators.
My work is grounded in more than 25 years of teaching experience across schools, creative learning environments and community settings. I create calm, developmentally appropriate experiences that bring together art, nature, storytelling, observation and hands-on making.
Maria Grujicic Studio is designed for families and educators who value meaningful creative learning without needing expensive materials, rigid programs or long hours of preparation. Many of my resources use simple materials already available at home, including recycled objects, paper, pencils, water, natural materials and loose parts.
I believe children learn deeply when they have time to look closely, repeat movements, explore materials, follow their own ideas and return to an activity when they are ready. My approach offers gentle structure while leaving room for imagination, independence and personal expression.
Through picture books, digital resources and small-group workshops, I support screen-light, process-based learning for homes, homeschools, classrooms, studios, clubs and community spaces.
My work is inspired by Darwin’s natural world, childhood curiosity and the belief that simple materials can become invitations for creativity, confidence and connection.
My Story
I was born and raised in Darwin in a Kalymnian-Greek family, and my connection to place, culture, storytelling and the natural world continues to shape my work.
For more than 25 years, I have worked with children, families and educators across Australia and internationally. My teaching journey has included Montessori- and Steiner-informed settings, bilingual Montessori education in Germany, International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme schools, English-language teaching, creative arts education and inclusive learning support.
Living and working in Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and elsewhere gave me the opportunity to learn languages, experience different cultures and see how children learn in a wide range of educational environments. I have also undertaken Montessori study through the United States and United Kingdom, including onsite Montessori training in Indianapolis, and have visited Montessori schools internationally.
Alongside education, I have always maintained an active creative practice. I write and illustrate picture books, create poetry, music, songs, paintings, sculptures, soft sculpture, wearable art, headdresses and imagined Avant Garde Creatures. My work often begins with observation — especially the plants, birds, textures and small moments found in Darwin’s everyday environments.
My published works include Mystery Plants & Trees: Adventures in the Ludmilla Bushblock, Hidden Beauty of Darwin and poetry projects including Poems That Dance. I photograph and film the natural world around me, then bring these observations into books, resources, artworks and creative experiences for children and families.
In 2026, I am developing Tactile Wall Art, an exhibition and participatory creative project at UNTiTLED gallery+studio in Darwin. The project brings together sensory exploration, visual arts, children’s workshops and evolving installation work.
Maria Grujicic Studio is where these threads come together: art, education, place, imagination, cultural experience and a lifelong belief that creativity can help us notice more deeply and connect more meaningfully.
How I Work
I create calm, carefully prepared creative environments where children can work with real materials, follow their curiosity, and build confidence through doing.
My approach is Montessori-informed, process-led and responsive to the individual child. Rather than asking children to copy a finished result, I offer a clear starting point, a manageable sequence and space for personal exploration.
Many of my activities use simple, accessible materials — including found objects, natural materials, recycled elements, paper, pencils, watercolour and loose parts. The aim is not to recreate school at home or rush children through a fixed outcome. It is to offer meaningful, hands-on experiences that can be repeated, adapted and returned to over time.
I work with families, homeschoolers, classrooms, studios and community settings. Resources and workshops are designed to be developmentally flexible, low-prep where possible, and suitable for children with different confidence levels, interests and prior experience.
I value small groups, thoughtful preparation, clear visual support and gentle guidance. Adults are invited to act as calm facilitators: preparing the environment, modelling care for materials, and allowing children time to think, observe, make choices and explore independently.
Ethical practice is central to my work. I am committed to respectful, place-based learning that encourages children to notice and respond to the world around them with care, curiosity and imagination.
Professional Background
I am a qualified educator, artist and creative learning facilitator with more than 25 years of experience working with children, families and educators across early childhood, primary education, arts learning and community settings in Australia and internationally.
My professional background includes Montessori-informed and Steiner-informed education, bilingual learning environments, International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme settings, English-language teaching, inclusive education and creative arts practice.
Alongside my teaching work, I write and illustrate picture books, develop creative learning resources, and create visual artworks, installations, wearable art and participatory projects. My current practice brings together art, nature, storytelling, sensory exploration and place-based learning.
All children’s workshops are facilitated by a qualified, experienced educator with current Working With Children clearance.
Studio Philosophy
Structure Creates Freedom
I create carefully prepared creative environments where children can settle, observe, explore and make at their own pace.
Art experiences can sometimes feel loud, fast or overwhelming, particularly when children are expected to follow the same instructions and produce similar outcomes. My approach offers a clear starting point, thoughtfully prepared materials and simple visual or verbal guidance, while leaving space for children to respond in their own way.
Structure is not used to limit imagination. It provides a calm foundation from which children can take creative risks, repeat processes, follow their interests and gradually develop confidence.
In my sessions, children may be invited to:
• begin with a simple shared prompt
• work with real, carefully selected materials
• observe an example or visual sequence
• repeat a process until it feels familiar
• make choices about colour, shape, materials or story
• extend an activity when they are ready
• pause, watch or return to an idea later
Workshops are designed for children aged approximately 4–12 and are adapted according to age, confidence, prior experience and interest. A younger child may begin by tracing, exploring materials or making broad marks, while an older child may extend the same invitation through detailed drawing, pattern, storytelling, sculpture or design.
This means children can work alongside one another without needing to produce the same result. Each child is offered an appropriate level of challenge, support and freedom within the same shared creative environment.
Group size varies according to the venue, activity, materials and age range of participants. Some sessions are intentionally intimate, while others may include a larger group where the space and workshop format allow for it. In every setting, I plan carefully for clear routines, accessible materials and meaningful participation.
I value short, clear instruction, visual support, calm pacing and hands-on engagement. Children are not rushed, compared or redirected away from their ideas. They are supported to notice, think, make choices and create deeply.
This approach is informed by Montessori principles of respect for the child, careful preparation of the environment, purposeful materials and uninterrupted work cycles.
Structure, in the studio, is not restriction.
It is what allows imagination to flourish.
Workshop Philosophy:
Why Time Matters
Children need time to settle, notice, explore and develop their own ideas.
My workshops are designed as carefully prepared creative experiences rather than rushed craft activities. Children are offered a clear starting point, accessible materials and gentle guidance, then given time to repeat, experiment, adjust and make choices.
Some children begin quickly. Others need time to observe, touch materials, watch a demonstration or return to an idea when they feel ready. All of these are valid ways of participating.
My workshops are designed for children aged approximately 4–12 and are adapted according to age, confidence, prior experience and interest. A younger child may work with larger materials, simpler movements or a short tracing process, while an older child may extend the same invitation through detailed drawing, pattern, storytelling, sculpture or design.
Flexible Workshop Formats
Maria Grujicic Studio workshops may be offered in different formats depending on the venue, project and age group:
• one-hour focused creative sessions
• two linked one-hour sessions, with the option to attend one or both
• 90-minute workshops
• two-hour holiday workshops
• multi-session creative programs and term-based series
The two-session format allows children and families to choose an experience that suits their energy, attention and interests. Children who attend both sessions can continue, deepen or extend their work without needing to rush.
What Children Are Supported to Do
Through thoughtful preparation, children may be supported to:
• settle into a calm creative environment
• observe, handle and care for materials
• follow a simple visual or verbal sequence
• repeat a process until it feels familiar
• develop focus and confidence
• make independent creative choices
• explore personal ideas without comparison
• continue an activity at a level that is appropriate for them
Group size varies according to the venue, activity, materials and age range of participants. Some sessions are intentionally intimate, while others may be offered to larger groups where the environment and workshop structure allow for meaningful participation.
My role is to create the conditions for children to work with care, curiosity and growing independence.
The aim is not speed or identical outcomes.
It is time, attention and freedom within a carefully prepared structure.
Mystery Plants & Trees: From Observation to Watercolour
A Montessori-informed nature art workshop inspired by Mystery Plants & Trees: Adventures in the Ludmilla Bushblock.
Why Montessori Materials Matter in My Workshops
My practice is Montessori-informed, grounded in my Montessori training and experience as an educator.
I draw on Montessori principles including careful preparation of the environment, purposeful hands-on materials, sensory exploration, repetition, independence and respect for each child’s developmental pace.
In Montessori education, materials are purposeful rather than decorative. They are often designed to isolate one quality or concept — such as colour, size, form, texture, movement or sequence — so that children can explore it through the hands as well as the mind.
Many Montessori materials offer a concrete way into an abstract idea. Children can touch, compare, arrange, repeat and notice before they are asked to explain, record or generalise their learning.
This way of working can support visual discrimination, concentration, fine-motor development, spatial awareness, problem-solving and growing independence. The materials provide a clear starting point, while allowing children time to build understanding through direct experience.
Sensorial Foundations
Montessori sensorial materials invite children to refine perception through sight, touch, dimension, colour, form, texture and gradation.
For example:
• Colour Tablets support matching, sorting and grading colours by hue and intensity. In my workshops, these experiences may extend into colour mixing through plasticine, paint, collage or other carefully chosen materials.
• The Pink Tower invites children to compare and order graded cubes. Through repeated handling and arrangement, children explore size, proportion, sequence and visual-spatial relationships.
• Geometric Solids support the exploration of three-dimensional form. Children can hold, compare, name and classify shapes through direct experience.
• Metal Insets support controlled tracing, line-making, shape awareness and careful hand movements. They can become a foundation for drawing, pattern, design and early writing preparation.
Montessori Materials and Creative Extensions
I use Montessori materials where they are helpful, particularly when introducing a new concept or offering children a clear sensorial starting point.
From there, I extend these principles through my own artist-educator practice. I create accessible variations using materials that families, educators and community groups may already have available.
This may include:
• recycled lids and containers for tracing
• cardboard shapes and rings
• natural materials, leaves and seedpods
• loose parts and found objects
• plasticine for colour mixing and sculptural exploration
• pencils, crayons, charcoal, watercolour and simple paint materials
The purpose is not to reproduce a Montessori classroom at home or in every workshop. It is to carry forward the underlying principles: careful preparation, limited and meaningful materials, sensory exploration, repetition, choice and movement from a simple starting point into personal creative discovery.
Montessori materials provide a foundation. My workshops then invite children to extend, adapt, imagine and create in ways that respond to their age, confidence, interests and ideas.
Example: From Colour Tablets to Plasticine Character Making
In my plasticine colour-mixing workshops, colour tablets may be arranged as a visual reference around a simple colour wheel.
Children begin by matching, naming and noticing colour. They then use small amounts of plasticine in lids or containers to mix neighbouring colours and observe how new intermediate shades emerge.
This begins with a carefully prepared sensorial invitation and develops into a more open-ended creative process. Children may use their mixed colours to sculpt characters, create details, explore facial expressions, combine forms, or later translate their colour discoveries into drawing and paint.
The Montessori material provides a clear starting point. The creative extension allows children to experiment, imagine and develop their own ideas.
The aim is not to copy a finished character. It is to support children to understand colour through their hands, then use that understanding in personal, imaginative ways.
Preparation for Writing:
The Hidden Curriculum
Many Montessori materials support the foundations children draw on for later writing.
Activities such as tracing, transferring, pouring, arranging and repeating controlled movements can help children develop hand strength, coordination, visual tracking, concentration and awareness of boundaries.
In my workshops, these foundations may appear through activities such as:
• tracing shapes with metal insets, cardboard forms or found objects
• drawing repeated lines, patterns and pathways
• using watercolour pencils, crayons, chalk or brushes with care
• working with plasticine, loose parts and small sculptural materials
• following a simple visual sequence at an individual pace
Children may gradually develop:
• control of line and direction
• hand-eye coordination
• visual attention
• patience and persistence
• confidence with tools and materials
• readiness to move from guided process into independent drawing, design and storytelling
The aim is not to rush children towards formal writing. It is to offer meaningful movement, sensory experience and creative repetition that can support later learning.
Practical Life, Focus and Independence
Practical life principles also influence how I prepare workshops.
Simple actions such as pouring water, selecting materials, carrying trays, opening containers, tidying up and returning tools to their place help children participate with growing care and independence.
These experiences can support:
• concentration
• sequencing
• order
• precision
• responsibility for materials
• completion of a creative process
In my studio practice, practical life is not separate from art-making. It becomes part of the creative environment: preparing the materials, working with attention, caring for tools and reflecting on what has been made.
Geometry Embedded in Art
Art and geometry naturally meet through tracing, pattern, construction, symmetry, shape and spatial relationships.
Children may encounter ideas such as:
• form and proportion
• symmetry and asymmetry
• pattern and repetition
• scale and placement
• two-dimensional and three-dimensional shape
• visual balance and composition
These ideas are not taught as abstract rules first. They are explored through drawing, collage, sculpture, plasticine, loose parts, painting and design.
From Isolated Concepts to Creative Integration
Montessori materials often isolate one quality at a time — such as colour, size, shape, texture, movement or sequence.
In my workshops, this becomes a clear creative invitation with a manageable starting point. Children are not overloaded with too many materials or competing instructions. They are offered enough structure to understand the process, then space to extend it through their own ideas.
This may look like:
• matching and grading colour before colour mixing
• tracing one shape before layering shapes into a design
• practising line movements before inventing a creature or pattern
• exploring simple forms before building a sculpture or story
The Montessori-informed foundation creates clarity. The artist-led extension invites imagination.
Structure is not restriction.
It is what allows creative thinking to deepen.
From Colour to Mask — Montessori-Informed Plasticine Colour Mixing Workshop
Exploring colour mixing, fractions, sculpture and character-making through hands-on art.
Curriculum Connections & Educational Partnerships
Maria Grujicic Studio workshops can be delivered in schools, early years settings, homeschool groups, studios and community learning environments.
Depending on the age group, workshop format and learning context, sessions can connect with key educational frameworks while remaining responsive to the children, materials and creative process in front of us.
For early childhood settings, workshops may connect with the Early Years Learning Framework through experiences that support identity, wellbeing, confident and involved learning, communication, connection to place and participation in shared creative environments.
For school-aged children, workshops may connect with the Australian Curriculum: The Arts, particularly Visual Arts, through opportunities to explore materials, develop creative practices, make artworks, respond to visual ideas and communicate meaning.
Workshops May Support Learning Through
• visual arts processes, materials and techniques
• drawing, painting, sculpture, collage, loose parts and installation
• creative and critical thinking
• literacy through storytelling, visual narratives and reflection
• science through observation, nature study, materials and change
• spatial reasoning through form, pattern, scale and composition
• personal and social capability through collaboration, choice-making and reflection
• sensory exploration, concentration and creative confidence
• place-based learning through local plants, birds, weather, textures and everyday environments
My workshops are not designed to replicate classroom learning in a different room. They offer carefully prepared creative experiences that can complement existing programs, extend current themes or create space for a stand-alone arts experience.
I can work with educators, schools and community organisations to develop workshops that respond to a particular age group, theme, project, exhibition, picture book, local environment or learning focus.
Examples may include:
• nature-based drawing and storytelling
• Montessori-informed tracing, line-making and watercolour
• plasticine colour mixing and character creation
• tactile PlayArt and loose-parts exploration
• creative workshops connected to picture books
• exhibition-linked workshops and artist talks
• sensory and place-based visual arts experiences
Workshop length, group size, materials and level of support are planned according to the venue, age range, activity and needs of participants.
Schools, centres, libraries, homeschool groups and community organisations are welcome to contact Maria Grujicic Studio to discuss a tailored workshop, resource package or creative learning collaboration.
Qualifications & Credentials
• Bachelor of Education — specialising in Music, Drama and Visual Arts
• Diploma of Creative Arts — Charles Darwin University / Academy of the Arts, Northern Territory
• High Distinction — S126 CRA102: Art, Dance, Songs and Stories of Place
• Montessori Training — Early Childhood, UK and USA
• Certificate IV in Visual Arts
• International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (PYP) Certification
• TESOL Certification — Teaching English to Children and Adults
• Artist-educator with more than 25 years of international teaching experience
• Current Ochre Card / Working With Children Clearance, Northern Territory
• Professional Member — National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA)
My workshops, resources and community art activities are delivered within a professional framework and supported by current public liability insurance through my NAVA membership.
Creative Practice
My creative practice is grounded in observation of place, memory, culture and the natural environment. I often begin by walking through landscapes, documenting plants, wildlife, weather, colour, texture and changing seasons through photography, sketches, film and written notes.
These observations become the foundation for picture books, poetry, paintings, sculpture, soft sculpture, wearable art, artist-designed studio goods, installations and educational projects.
I write and illustrate my own picture books, including Mystery Plants & Trees: Adventures in the Ludmilla Bushblock, and have also published Hidden Beauty of Darwin and poetry projects including Poems That Dance.
My current work includes the development of the Tactile Wall Art Project, an exhibition and participatory creative project at UNTiTLED gallery+studio in Darwin from October to November 2026. The project brings together sensory exploration, tactile art, workshops, evolving installation work and creative participation across children, teen and adult audiences.
Recent Academic Recognition
In 2026, I completed Creative Arts study through Charles Darwin University / Academy of the Arts, achieving High Distinctions across all submitted assessments.
My work was recognised for its place-based observation, reflective creative practice, cultural storytelling, material exploration and ability to connect personal history with broader questions of memory, landscape, movement and belonging.
Across these projects, I explored connections between Darwin, the Ludmilla bushblock, Kalymnian heritage, family memory, maritime traditions, environmental care and intergenerational creativity.
Selected Feedback
Charles Darwin University Creative Arts Study, 2026
S126 CRA102 ART, DANCE, SONGS AND STORIES OF PLACE
“A beautiful testament to the space between places.”
“A highly developed and cohesive artistic voice.”
“Your work elevates writing from a simple description to a comparative cultural study.”
“A beautiful realisation.”
“An exemplary model of ethical intercultural engagement.”
This study continues to inform my current creative practice, including picture books, place-based workshops, visual arts, writing, installation work and the development of the Tactile Wall Art Project.
Let’s Connect
I welcome thoughtful enquiries about:
• children’s creative workshops
• school, homeschool and early years programs
• artist-led projects and exhibitions
• picture books, creative resources and collaborations
• community arts and place-based learning opportunities
Based in Darwin, Northern Territory.
Workshops and creative projects can be delivered locally, with selected resources available online.
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