Collection: Best selling products

An ideal gift for the festive season, the second edition of the publication will be available for purchase in-person at the NAS Gallery reception from Friday 1 December 2023 or on-line. If purchasing on-line, please note that books will be mailed via Australia Post and NAS cannot guarantee their arrival before Christmas.  

Radiance is a celebration of the work of Elisabeth Cummings OAM, one of Australia’s most exceptional and esteemed painters, and a distinguished/ alumna of the National Art School. This exhibition focuses on her primary medium, working in oil paint, with major works from the last 30 years featuring the artist’s distinctive painterly language and revelatory colour. Cummings’ art practice is grounded in the experience of her surroundings distilled into visual form. Vibrant, semi-abstract compositions in themselves, most artworks emerge from the artist’s memory of and response to specific landforms and ecologies, as well as beloved internal spaces.

Have you always wanted to paint but haven’t known where to start? Designed for complete beginners, this course will give you a solid and practical foundation in painting using acrylics and oil paints. Learn simple processes for colour mixing, composition, and perspective, to produce a suite of finished paintings.

Discover the sensuous beauty of classical oil painting techniques and be guided through a series of structured exercises and demonstrations of methods and specific ways of using materials. 

Expand your still life painting skills in an immersive weekend with renowned artist Jude Rae, who shares her insights into the genre within a cultural frame that supports both the traditions of realist painting and Abstraction. Through personalised instruction you’ll develop a personal visual language to create dynamic, engaging paintings.

Learn to draw forms and structures of the human head, facial features, body dynamics and discover the connection between the ‘character’ and the ‘face’. Using pencil, charcoal, ink, wash and collage, to make quick sketches and sustained drawings from plaster casts, live models and a self-portrait.

This course presents a unique approach to understanding and applying colour developed by David over the last 25 years for art and design practitioners and teachers as well as anyone just fascinated by colour. It consists of eight beautifully illustrated lectures complemented by optional practical exercises that progress from mastering colour control in paint through to still-life painting studies. The lectures are given live in class with time allowed for discussion but can also be viewed outside class as video recordings. Students undertake the practical exercises outside class and can submit photos by email for feedback and discussion.

Discover the mystery of bronze, from planning a sculpture to casting in bronze. Model a figurative sculpture in wax, then make the ceramic shell casting, including sprueing the waxes, burning out the ceramic moulds, pouring the metal, and using metal chasing and patina techniques.

This hands-on, practical workshop will cover the basics of ceramic glaze composition, surface development, application techniques, and firing over a range of temperatures. Learn how to test, apply, and fire glazes to suit your own practice. 

A dynamic 2-day ceramics workshop which explores slab building and a variety of surface embellishment techniques using terracotta clay. Develop experimental hand-built slab forms with vessel-like structures. 

Learn the art of clay modelling and create a life-size portrait bust that captures both likeness and character. Discover the techniques and principles of working with clay, exploring its plastic properties to sculpt a 1:1 scale portrait. 

Learn how to throw pots with a strong architectural form to create objects of simplicity and beauty. Explore the basic structures, movements and techniques of wheelforming in this hands-on course and become proficient on the potter’s wheel.

Explore the art of monoprinting and the creation of original prints using stencils and drawing techniques, with a variety of textured materials. Learn simple bookbinding methods and delve into the nuances of layering, printing, and colour processes to produce unique and dynamic prints. 

Discover how to draw from the figure, from initial sketches of life models to detailed portraits and sustained studies. Learn to see and draw anatomical structures, bring out the personality of the subject and breathe life into your drawings.

Learn to see beyond the bewildering details of your subject to gather the colour information you need to get your painting off to a great start! 

Discover how to think of colour in a way that enables you to mix the exact colour that you want confidently and directly, every time. The course assumes no prior knowledge and has given great results with students from beginner to advanced levels.

Are you eager to move from being an arts enthusiast to a practising, exhibiting and sustainable artist? Learn what it takes to become a professional artist; how to research and understand the investment of time, money, planning, energy and creativity it requires to survive in the arts.

Image courtesy of the Geoff Raby Opening, National Art School

Join acclaimed Australian artist Juz Kitson’s two-day experimental porcelain masterclass and delve deeply into the making process, exploring new ways of manipulating and pushing the porcelain to create challenging and innovative objects.