Collection: Daytime Courses

Engage your five senses in the act of drawing and experience a fresh, personal and perceptive approach to art making. From initial idea generation to the creation of resolved drawings, this course provides a pathway to dynamic and personal expression.

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.

Enhance your throwing skills to create larger, more intricate forms on the potter’s wheel and expand your existing throwing techniques. Explore new methods, including advanced coiling and the complexities of sectional throwing, to create tall forms and low, wide pieces. 

This course presents a unique approach to understanding and applying colour developed by David over the last 25 years. 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 live lectures and discussions can be viewed outside class as video recordings. Students undertake practical exercises outside class and can submit photos for feedback.

Learn to paint expressively with an individual approach while increasing your knowledge and understanding of the importance of colour, composition and form. Using acrylic or oil paint, students will learn how to mix and experiment with colour and will be encouraged to paint quickly and loosely and to develop expressive brushwork.

Are you eager to begin your drawing journey and unlock your innate creativity? Join this beginner’s course to develop essential drawing skills, gain confidence and teach you solid foundations upon which to build your art practice.

A comprehensive introduction to the world of printmaking techniques such as lino and woodcut, dry point etching and Monoprinting. Explore layering processes, multiple plates, and sensory drawing exercises to create a series of prints. 

Develop your drawing skills and unleash your creativity in structured, live online classes led by Rachel Fairfax. Designed to mimic a studio-style experience, each lesson focuses on a specific theme with practical drawing exercises, demonstrations, and interactive engagement.

Do you want to learn to draw in a way that’s responsive to the unique qualities of your subject? and to the expressive effect of your drawing’s abstract elements? Discover how to draw with graphite pencils, chalk and ink from subjects such as the still life, the life model and on-location at the historic NAS campus. Suitable for beginners or anyone who feels that they missed out on important fundamentals of drawing in their training. 

Explore contemporary landscape painting through a balance of outdoor drawing and indoor painting practice. On location you’ll make sketches that capture shifting light, colour, and atmosphere. In the NAS studio, you’ll experiment, reflect, and transform these studies into painted works, developing confidence through spontaneous observation and thoughtful refinement.

This beginner course introduces the essentials of oil and acrylic painting through direct observation. Explore light, colour, and form in still life, landscapes, and portraits while learning composition, proportion, perspective, colour theory, and technique. Progress from monochrome studies to full colour works, building confidence and foundational painting skills. 

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.

Immerse yourself in the luminous world of watercolour and explore the expressive potential of the medium, working across landscapes, still life, and the human figure. With demonstrations, hands-on exercises, and discussions, this course encourages you to refine your technique while embracing spontaneity.

Learn basic anatomical concepts that will enable you to grasp the essential structure and action of the figure in a few lines, leaving you free to focus on the individual character and expressive effect of your drawing, instead of struggling just to make it look like a figure!  A life model poses in each session, alternating with group and individual instructions and demonstrations referring to the model, skeleton, anatomical diagrams and master drawings.

Engage your five senses in the act of drawing and experience a fresh, personal and perceptive approach to art making. From initial idea generation to the creation of resolved drawings, this course provides a pathway to dynamic and personal expression.

Develop and deepen your practice of hand-building in ceramics, whether you're interested in creating vessels, figurative forms, abstract sculptures, large-scale works, or a series of smaller pieces. Ideal for both beginners and intermediate students seeking to expand their skills. 

Curious about drawing but unsure where to start? This course is designed for beginners and those wanting to refresh their skills, offering an entry point into the fundamentals of drawing. Practical exercises will introduce you to the expressive possibilities of different media, including graphite and charcoal. 

Explore a range of monoprint, papermaking and bookmaking techniques; transforming existing papers into surfaces for drawing, painting, printing and collage to create artists’ books; incorporate various materials to reimagine and repurpose visual ideas.   

Enrol in an immersive and dynamic workshop that explores three-dimensional slab construction with terracotta clay. The emphasis is on developing experimental slab forms with an orientation towards vessel structures. An extensive variety of in-depth surface embellishment techniques will be explored.