Colour, Abstraction and Expressive Painting Online

Learn about the fundamental principles of colour-mixing and discover how colours change and move in a picture plane.

Tonee Messiah introduces painting approaches 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.

This course gives you the opportunity to develop your own abstract language in colour with a focus on acrylic painting, although students are welcome to work in oils or mixed media. Tonee leads group discussions and demonstrates how to identify students’ individual areas of interest and translate them into abstract artworks.

The course is suitable for those with a basic knowledge of paint handling and will also be very beneficial for those with prior painting experience.

Tonee’s online studio course is taught with Zoom and takes advantage of the full range of tools that this program offers. She is present in the online studio for the whole session and she responds directly to student questions in live critiques and discussions. We are also using Padlet in this course, Padlet is a web application that allows users to post information and images on a digital wall.

If you are unfamiliar with the Zoom program, some tutorial assistance is available prior to the commencement of the first session to ensure you can join in with ease and get to know the online learning environment. You will be guided in Padlet usage by your Lecturer and you can get additional tutorial help from NAS.

Class sizes are limited to a maximum of twelve students and the sessions are not recorded.

A computer, laptop or ipad with a good internet connection

A phone or digital camera to photograph practical exercises for feedback

Tonee Messiah’s painting practice has evolved over 15 years from representational to abstract. She is motivated by the subtleties of the human condition, finding imagery that speaks of the tensions present in modern life and the undulations of human relationships.

Having started her professional practice using acrylics, she now paints predominantly in oils, and her works on paper use a vast combination of water-based media.

She holds a sessional lecturing position at UNSW Art & Design where she completed her MFA degree in 2017 along with extensive experience teaching at NAS in both Public Programs and the Drawing department. Tonee has been a finalist in the Hazelhurst Art on Paper Prize, the Paddington Art Prize and the ABN Amro Art Award. She exhibits throughout Australia and internationally, and her work is held in the collections of Artbank and the Monash University Museum of Art, as well as numerous corporate and private collections.

She is represented by Gallery 9, Sydney, and Nicholas Thompson Gallery, Melbourne.

Students must supply their own art materials, please refer to the list below.

In this painting course you will be encouraged to use acrylic paints but using oil paints is also acceptable if you prefer it. If you already have some paints bring them to the first class, and your teacher can tell you whether the colours you have are suitable alternatives to the list given below.

Acrylic Paints

• Titanium White
• Ivory Black
• Ultramarine Blue (warm blue)
• Pthalo Blue (cool blue)
• Cadmium Red (warm red)
• Alizarin Crimson (cool red)
• Magenta
• Cadmium Yellow Medium (warm yellow)
• Cadmium Yellow Light or Lemon yellow (cool yellow)
• Raw Umber
• 250ml bottle of Atelier Clear painting medium or Matisse Painting medium

NB: Cadmium colours are ideal but feel free to choose cheaper alternatives in cool and warm colours

NB: For those who wish to paint in oils predominantly, the following colours will be required.

• Ultramarine Blue (warm blue)
• Phthalo Blue (cool blue)
• Scarlet red / Spectrum red (warm red)
• Spectrum Crimson / Alizarin(cool red)
• Magenta
• Spectrum yellow / Golden yellow (warm yellow)
• Lemon Yellow (cool yellow)
• Raw Umber
• Raw sienna/ yellow ochre
• Titanium White
• Ivory Black

If you are choosing to use Oil Paints Please bring

• 1x bottle of odourless solvent 100ml
• 1 glass jar and lid (small, to clean brushes in)
• 1x 100ml bottle of Archival Brand (fast drying) fat medium OPTIONAL

Supports

• 4 large A1 pieces of oil sketch paper (this is suitable for oils and acrylic paint) OR an A3 pad with Oil Sketch Paper and 1 large A1 sheet of above.

Miscellaneous Materials

• Flat wood or plastic palette or disposable palette
• 1 small neck palette knife with pointy tip (plastic or metal)
• 1 lead 2B pencil
• Sketchbook A5 size or larger for notes and planning
• 2-3 cm thick Masking tape
• 2x Bulldog clips
• Apron/protective clothing

Brushes

• 3 flat brushes in sizes that are approximately 15mm, 10mm and 5mm wide. These brushes can be either synthetic or natural bristle, even if you are painting in oils.
• 3 filbert brushes in sizes that are approximately 12mm, 8mm and 5mm. These brushes can be either synthetic or natural bristle, even if you are painting in oils.
• 1 wide 3-4 cm cheap flat bristle brush
• 1 round fine point synthetic brush size 1 or 2