Collection: New Courses and Programs

Discover how light and shadow can transform your art. In this workshop, you’ll build small-scale diorama scenes and use them to explore chiaroscuro—a painting technique that plays with contrast to create depth and emotion. Learn how to balance highlights and shadows to add drama to your work, and see how lighting can turn a simple scene into a powerful story.

Through experimental drawing, photography and sound recordings, this workshop will explore the transformative power of stop-motion animation. Students will learn basic editing skills on Adobe Premiere Pro to cut together their own animated short film. 

Curious about what drawing can be? Learn and explore new and experimental ways of approaching drawing through a range of materials, techniques, and ideas, including drawing with light, building drawing machines, drawing with the environment, embodied processes of drawing, wearable drawing garments and more!

Explore the art of sculpture through the creation of Chimeras — imaginative hybrid creatures composed of different animal parts. Using materials such as wire, cardboard, and more, you’ll experiment with 3D thinking, composition and construction techniques to design and bring your own mythical beings to life.

Explore the imaginative world of surrealism in this creative painting workshop. Inspired by artists like Salvador Dalí and Frida Kahlo, you will learn how to express dreamlike ideas through unexpected imagery and symbolism.

Join us at NAS this summer to discover the fascinating world of aluminium etching. You will explore various traditional and contemporary techniques such as chine-colle and sugar-lift to produce your own unique edition of prints. 

In this workshop you will explore ideas of hybridity, scale and narrative. In a fun and relaxed studio atmosphere, you will fuse together real and imagined elements to create your own monster compositions.

Dive into a world of imagination and clay. In this ceramics workshop, you will explore fantasy-inspired forms— from dragons to mythology and fairy-tales. 

Join us at NAS to delve into the world of wheelthrowing. Led by Issy Parker, you will learn how to wedge, throw and turn clay forms on the wheel.

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.

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.

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.

Do you love contemporary art? Have you thought about starting a collection but aren’t sure where to begin? The art world can sometimes feel mysterious and overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. This 4-week lecture series is designed to make art collecting accessible, exciting, and confidence-building.

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 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.

Explore a variety of hands-on clay-building techniques such as pinching, coiling, and slab construction, and explore how texture, gesture, and form can transform raw material into expressive, evocative works. Create a series of bold, abstract sculptures across different formats and scales.

Learn to use the potter’s wheel to create simple, elegant ceramic forms in this hands-on eight-week course. Explore the full process from clay to glazed pot through group demonstrations and individual guidance. Suitable for all levels, the course builds confidence, refines technique, and reveals the creative possibilities of throwing and glazing.

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.

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.

This 8-week course for intermediate to advanced painters explores figure painting through memory, observation, and storytelling. Working in oils or acrylics, you’ll develop skills in proportion, tone, and expressive colour. Through demonstrations, short studies, and a sustained project with individual feedback, you’ll refine technique and strengthen your artistic voice.

Are you new to painting or looking to expand your practice? In this inspiring course you will explore materials and techniques, from gouache and acrylic to collage and oil. Emphasizing play, experimentation, and introducing historical references, you’ll build confidence, develop personal expression, and discover new ways of making paintings beyond representation.

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.