Guest Artist Collection: Penny Dodman

About the Guest Artist Collection

At Butler Diaries, we believe in celebrating Australian art and bringing beauty to your educational workspace. We're proud to present our 2026 Guest Artist Collection, featuring four stunning artworks by Penny Dodman (McGuire), a talented local artist from the Sunshine Coast.

Leona Butler, Founder and CEO of Butler Diaries, has long been an admirer of Penny's work: "I have some of her artworks in my home and wanted to share this talented artist's works with you on our best-selling FDC and Weekly Programming and Reflection Diaries."

Meet the Artist

Penny Dodman has been painting for almost 25 years and has won numerous awards during her career, including being a finalist in the prestigious Fleurieu Biennale. Penny's favourite work is fast and colourful, generally in acrylics on large canvases. She likes to reinvent these works as much as possible by continually layering colour and adding texture with lots of detail under each layer.

She also creates beautiful works of the Australian landscape in oils, which are sometimes quite traditional and often play on light. Penny also loves Australian Impressionism and is currently honing her skills in this style.

The Artwork Collection

We carefully selected four of Penny's existing artworks that we believe perfectly capture the spirit of creativity, tranquility, joy, and connection to the Australian landscape that many educators strive to bring to their learning environments.

Blue Heaven

"Inspired by my sister and her love of hydrangeas. Blue is such a peaceful and restful colour and blue hydrangeas was a perfect choice to create a restful relaxing piece." - Penny Dodman

Featured on: 2026 Weekly Programming and Reflection Diary

Dancing with Pink

"I started with a musical influence, my goal was to create a musical piece with Pink in mind. As always nature crept in and got a little flowery. I'm thinking that this piece will be the first in a series of similar pieces. This piece is bright and colourful with a lot of movement, it's a happy piece just like Pink." - Penny Dodman

Featured on: 2026 Weekly Programming and Reflection Diary

Sunny Days Glasshouse Mountains

"My favourite region, the Glasshouse Mountains depicted in a fun and funky styled painting. It's colourful, vibrant and very contemporary. I wanted to show people's gardens and represent the produce grown in the area." - Penny Dodman

Featured on: 2026 Weekly Programming and Reflection Diary

Desert Sisters

"This piece was influenced by my time working out in the Pilbara region with my daughters, watching them on our walks with the unique desert flowers and plants." - Penny Dodman

Featured on: 2026 Family Day Care Combined Compliance Checklist and Programming Diary

The Collection

Diaries

Our 2026 Weekly Programming and Reflection Diary and Family Day Care Combined Compliance Checklist and Programming Diary feature these stunning artworks on their covers, bringing a touch of artistic inspiration to your everyday planning.

Matching Accessories

To complement the diaries, we've created a range of coordinating accessories:

Pencil Cases - Keep your planning tools organised in style
Lanyards - Display your ID with artistic flair
Notebooks - For additional notes and reflections

Bundle & Save

We have fabulous curated bundles all containing matching :

Diary
Pencil Case
Notebook
Lanyard
Pen Clip
Gold Pen

Why We Created This Collection

Unlike our commissioned artwork projects, the Guest Artist Collection represents our appreciation for existing Australian art. When Leona discovered Penny's work, she was immediately drawn to how these pieces could enhance the experience of using our educational planning tools.

By featuring these artworks on our products, we hope to: