Pamela Woods is a visual artist and educator based in  Stanmore, Sydney, NSW. She started as a print illustrator with an interest in animation, later in life she diverted to teaching and writing. Through her alter ego, Classbunny, she runs art workshops for the City of Sydney, festivals,councils and private clients in Sydney, teaching over 2000 people per year over the last 4 years, underlining her passion for community arts. For leisure, she has  been competing in Art Battle regularly since 2023. In 2024, she became the Australian champion. She exhibits in group shows in Australia and held a solo show of her  fish paintings as a guest of the 2024 Frost Over Barraba festival and also facilitated workshops.

1. How would you describe your creative practice today?

Because I'm restless and curious I seek out novelty. I pride myself on being 'up' for anything creativity wise. I started off studying a BA in Visual Communications at Sydney College of the Arts, which I loathed. All that typography. Ugh. I really just wanted to be an illustrator but at that time there were no illustration courses to pursue, so I jumped ship and through a chance meeting during a smoking break when I was working as a kitchen hand, I met a customer who was compiling Cheap Eats magazine and he hired me on the spot to illustrate the first ever edition. And just like that I became an illustrator!

One thing I did click with at art college was film making – and decades later I ended up studying Animation and Directing for Film at VCA, in Melbourne. My graduating shorts took me to film festivals in Europe and studying an MA in screenwriting in Leeds. So I pivoted from art to a writing and a TV career for the next 20 years in the UK on major shows. I also taught film making and screen writing in Universities.

Since then, today, back in Sydney, I have got back to my first passion, making images, I paint in watercolour, inks, acrylic and digitally and have added teaching arts and crafts to my practice through my business 'classbunny.'

2. You had a very varied artistic trajectory; how have you drawn on the different disciplines or mediums in your teaching of creativity?

I do have a broad skills base but I have a need to research and figure out new things. I feel you have to keep things fresh as a teacher and be a little on edge, you can't get complacent or too comfortable. You have to constantly up skill and take risks. Sometimes I'm only one step ahead of people I teach. I think that's OK. If I'm asked a question that I don't know the answer to, I'll admit it and seek to find out. A teacher isn't a walking encyclopedia, your job is to encourage, be enthusiastic and responsive and constantly review your own practice. Much the same as in an arts practice.

3. What motivated the shift from teaching at university to informal learning?

For some reason my brain will only let me write OR do visual things. Not both. During my 20 years of film making, writing and teaching, I simply stopped drawing and painting....completely. It was a busy time, I had kids in my forties and got my first TV writing commission whilst I was in labour! My career and life was fully grounded in the UK but in 2012 when my mother became ill, back in Sydney I returned aged 52 and started life all over again with young kids in tow.

So, back in Sydney I started teaching casually on a digital media and gaming degree, before finally launching classbunny which is social and more about sharing skills than formal 'teaching.'

Transferring to informal teaching was driven at first by family commitments but coincidentally universities were changing and becoming a grind anyway. I loved the teaching and students but hated the pointless bureaucracy and paperwork plus the endless marking, assessing people is horrible - it feels punitive rather than encouraging.

Alongside watercolour painting I also teach all kinds of crafts for corporate clients, individuals, councils and festivals. My formal teaching experience means my classes are structured and look for outcomes. I don't do paint and sip, I want people to take away skills they can expand upon into the future.

4. Classbunny seems to suggest a playful attitude to learning. Would you describe Classbunny as your skill sharing alter ego?

Yes, classbunny has become my alter ego by default! I took up speed painting about 3 years ago and started competing in 'Artbattle. ' Everyone has an alter ego 'painting name' in that community so I was of course referred to as classbunny instead of Pamela. It's stuck.

Artbattle is a monthly competitive live painting event that's run world wide. It's so, so stressful, but addictive - you paint from scratch in front of a large, live audience on a stage. DJ's play and you are under pressure and intense scrutiny to create a painting in 20 minutes. The music is so loud that the canvas vibrates as you paint. There are a couple of rounds before a winner is voted on by the audience. To my shock and surprise, I've won quite a few battles and I'm now the first Sydney champion - so in the future I'll compete against the other world wide champions overseas. I can't wait. It's an absolute hoot, and I highly recommend it as a challenge, especially for a woman in her sixties. I think I may be one of the oldest battlers in the world? So yes, I'm serious about what I do but I think I still have a playful attitude to my work. I can't do serious artist face. I really enjoy making art and I love the social aspect of my activities.

5. What is your current artistic obsession?

For the last few years I have been obsessively painting sardines. I use them as a still life subject but just formally, there are so many colours to explore, backgrounds to play with so I'm not finished yet. My fish may seem jaunty, but for me they are about being in a precarious state, if you look closely they all have a splattering of blood. We are living in and through precarious times and that seeps out into my work somehow.

I'm always on the lookout for opportunities to exhibit and sell my work but I'm a bit sad to see them go - but I am very aware that paintings can stack up, so I need to sell them to make more space to keep painting. I hate to imagine my kids gathering up thousands of sardine paintings to be thrown into a skip when I finally shed my mortal coil. I do paint other things but somehow I keep coming back to those damn sardines. For my Hopster's residency I may only include one sardine as I need to try and surprise myself