Collection: New Courses and Programs

Working from a life model, create a portrait bust in clay that reflects both likeness and individuality. Explore observational and sculptural techniques with Monika Scarrabelotti, and discover how to capture likeness and character, and bring personality to your sculpture. 

Are you inspired by photography and eager to take your skills to the next level? This immersive workshop will help you move beyond your camera’s automatic settings, develop creative and technical control and build the confidence to create photographs that reflect your personal vision. 

Rethink what textiles can be. Explore the expansive sculptural and conceptual potential of textiles. Experiment with assemblage, construction, deconstruction and patternmaking and transform the way you perceive both sculpture and the material of textiles itself. Through play, intuition and material exploration, discover new ways of making beyond traditional textile techniques. 

Learn fundamental welding skills and complete small-scale welded steel sculptures. With demonstrations and techniques for using arc and MIG welders and oxyacetylene to cut, shape and bend steel, as well as ways to grind steel and use surface treatments suited to steel.

This 5-day intensive painting workshop offers students the opportunity to develop a visual language through a contemporary approach to still life. Using a limited palette and a small selection of objects, students will explore composition, juxtaposition, narrative, and the expressive potential of everyday materials. 

This beginner-friendly painting intensive explores colour, value and brushwork through still life and plein air studies, guided by historical and contemporary references. You'll build a foundation in observational drawing, focusing on line, measurement and value to help translate what you see into paint. Through experimentation and play, you'll develop core painting skills and begin to discover your own painting language.

Learn basic anatomical principles to understand and express the structure and movement of the figure with confidence. This foundation leaves you free to focus on character and expression in your drawings. Each session includes a life model, with group and individual instruction supported by demonstrations using anatomical diagrams, a skeleton, and master drawings.

Gain a comprehensive introduction to the cornerstones of printmaking as we investigate both relief printing (lino and woodblock) and intaglio printing (etching) over five exciting days. Discover the wonderful array of marks, tones and processes that are possible in these two engaging art forms. These disciplines are both steeped in tradition while allowing for exciting approaches to contemporary art making.

Learn to see beyond the complexity of your subject and identify the colour information needed to begin a painting with confidence. Develop a practical understanding of colour that will help you mix the colours you want accurately and directly. Suitable for all levels, from complete beginners to experienced painters.

Explore the creative possibilities of monoprinting through drawing, painting and experimental printmaking with found objects and materials. Learn to use an etching press and hand-printing techniques while creating layered prints on diverse surfaces. Build technical skills, expand your creative practice, and produce a portfolio of distinctive artworks.

Delve into the full spectrum of Screenprinting in this hands-on course designed to welcome beginners while also offering new challenges for those with prior experience. Learn the basics, from simple stencils to advanced photographic processes. Build your skills and confidence as you develop more ambitious prints.

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. 

Get up close and personal with live musicians, dancers, and performers in a unique week of experimental life drawing. Come for a week of drawing, experimentation, and live performance, and discover how dynamic life drawing can be. Working directly from musicians, dancers, and performers offers access to unique drawing situations that are rarely available outside a structured course environment. 

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, or abstract sculptures, this exciting program will support you to develop your practice of hand-building in ceramics. Ideal for both beginners and intermediate students seeking to expand their skills.

Enhance your throwing skills to create larger, more intricate forms on the potter’s wheel that are created with a balance of scale with structure. Immerse yourself in the ceramics studio and explore new methods, including advanced coiling and the complexities of altering forms on the wheel, to create tall forms and low, wide pieces. 

Curious about felting wool fibre as a sculptural medium? Explore the exciting sculptural potential of feltmaking and discover how to use traditional skills to make contemporary artworks. Learn the core techniques of feltmaking to create three-dimensional forms that are strong, tactile, and richly textured.

Learn fundamental welding skills and complete small-scale welded steel sculptures. With demonstrations and techniques for using MIG welders and oxyacetylene to cut, shape and bend steel, as well as ways to grind steel and use surface treatments suited to steel.

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.  

Explore a personal approach to landscape painting with Annabel. Inspired by a visit to the Sidney Nolan survey at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, discover ways of working from memory, imagination and personal experience. Develop new approaches to expressing atmosphere, emotion and a sense of place through paint.

Learn the fundamental principles of abstract painting and discover how colours change and move in a picture plane. Tonee Messiah introduces painting techniques from modernist abstraction to the present day and shows how painters approach the translation of subject matter using colour as a powerful expressive tool and emotive agent. 

How do artists portray identity and character today? Explore contemporary and historical approaches to portraiture with Kim Spooner. Working from live models and photographs, learn techniques for capturing likeness and expression in oils or acrylics, and develop confidence in your own portrait painting practice. 

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.