Collection: New Courses and Programs

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.

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 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.

Do you want to learn to draw in a way that’s responsive to the unique qualities of your subject, but also sensitive to the expressive effect of your drawing’s abstract elements of line, rhythm, shape and tone? Discover how to draw with pencils, chalks and ink from subjects including plaster casts, the life model and the historic National Art School campus.

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.

Work directly from the nude figure to understand the balance between observed figuration and abstract formal qualities. All fundamental drawing elements are considered, including compositional issues of the human form, space and structure.

Do you want to develop your life drawing skills? This course is ideal for students and practicing artists interested in drawing from a range of models, both draped and undraped, exploring strategies for understanding and depicting the human form. Learn to draw key anatomical landmarks of the body and express gesture and rhythm.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

There are many ways to tap into your creativity when you are drawing. Toshiko Oiyama leads you through guided experiments and playful exercises, from unexpected ways of holding pencils, to using the sense of touch in focused seeing, to discover the world around you afresh. 

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. 

This exciting course combines textiles with creative drawing using diverse techniques with paper, fabric, collage and assemblage. In this course you will explore the materiality of different surfaces.  Students will be guided in sketching, painting, weaving and embroidering lines on the surface of papers and textiles.

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 everything there is to know about welded steel sculpture, and the safe use of oxy acetylene, arc and MIG welding techniques. With demonstrations of joining, cutting, shaping, grinding and bending steel to produce successful sculptures.

Use the motif of the window to move from painting interior spaces to depicting views of the exterior landscape, with a focus on modernist painting techniques. The course begins with a collective still life composed of students’ personal objects, from which you will draw and paint. It then shifts toward interior–exterior landscapes, exploring compelling vistas seen through windows overlooking the campus.

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 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.

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.

Develop core wheel-throwing skills through hands-on practice in clay preparation, wedging, centring, lifting, shaping, trimming and turning. This intensive course builds strong technique and confidence on the wheel while encouraging exploration of form. Create bowls, cups or sculptural pieces, with selected works bisque-fired in NAS kilns.

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.