Collection: Short Courses

Develop the skills to create larger, more complex forms on the potter’s wheel and expand your throwing techniques. You’ll be introduced to advanced methods such as coiling and sectional throwing, exploring the nuances of working with larger pieces.

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 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.

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. 

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. 

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.

Explore and learn to draw the forms and structures of the human head, facial features, and body dynamics and discover the connection between the ‘character’ and the ‘face’.

Using a variety of drawing mediums from pencil, charcoal, ink and wash to collage, via quick sketches and sustained drawings, students will investigate a range of subjects starting with the skull and plaster casts, to the live model and self-portrait.

Printing with coloured inks from multiple plates is an exciting way to advance and develop your etching practice. Progress from simple monochromatic prints and learn to confidently add colour to your etchings using more challenging techniques. 

Learn to incorporate textures with acrylic paints and create visual tensions that bring depth and tactile surfaces to your artworks. Experiment with layering three-dimensional elements and acrylic paint to develop relief effects and abstract compositions.

Explore the representational, atmospheric, and emotive possibilities of tonal drawing. Working from set ups and life models in the studio, you will learn to perceive and convey lights and darks in your work; adding drama and tension to your drawings.

Capturing the subtle details of the face requires strong observational and drawing skills, and learning to draw portraits becomes achievable when broken down into key components. By understanding these foundational principles, you’ll enhance your portraits and enrich your sketchbook with greater confidence.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.