Painting and Drawing: From Body of Work to Professional Practice

This comprehensive course encompasses the creation of a new body of work in painting and/or drawing; the skills to engage professionally in the artworld, and enhances your studio practice, within an artist-as-mentor environment. Alongside the development of your artwork, Michelle Cawthorn introduces you to how other artists build their bodies of work, and their different approaches to technical, material, and conceptual ideation.

Each week she introduces a new component of professional practice, including how to write a gallery proposal, an artist CV and biography. Towards the end of the course, you’ll learn how to write an artist’s statement about the work you’ve created. Michelle also teaches the basic elements of documenting your artworks and introduces you to the tools you’ll need to create a digital portfolio. This course is for intermediate to advanced level students, as well as those interested in learning how to pivot their practice to the next level of professionalism.

*Short courses are open to students of ages 16 years and over.

*Drawing and painting short courses may be held in upstairs studios. If access to stairs is not suitable, please contact NAS Short Courses Administration at short.courses@nas.edu.au

Michelle Cawthorn invokes memory and personal experience through her distinctive visual language of repetitive mark-making. Exploring themes related to childhood, place, identity, and sexuality, she creates enigmatic works that hover between figuration and abstraction. Though grounded in drawing, her practice intersects with painting, sculpture, and installation.Michelle has extensive teaching experience and holds a sessional lecturing position at the University of Wollongong where she has been teaching since 2015. She also taught for many years at University of NSW Arts, Design and Architecture where she completed her PhD in Fine Art in 2020. Michelle has been a finalist in many national prizes including, the Splash McClelland Contemporary Watercolour Award, the Ravenswood Australian Women’s Art Prize, and the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing amongst others. She has twice been winner of the Hazelhurst Art on Paper, Local Artist Award (2017 and 2013) and in 2017 she was a finalist in the Sulman Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW.  Her work has been exhibited throughout Australia and is held in several Australian public collections, including ARTBANK. Michelle is represented by OLSEN Gallery, Sydney.

All students:

• HB pencil
• Sharpener
• Eraser
• Masking tape
• A4 art journal

Students can work in either oil or acrylic paints and any pre-primed support of their choice, or alternatively, refer to the recommended list below:

• Two 50 x 40 cm pre-primed canvas or canvas boards
• Synthetic brushes: round 1 & 6, flat 12 & 24
• Hogs’ hair brushes: flat 2, 6, 12 & 24
• Palette knife (for paint mixing)
• Palette (any impervious white surface, e.g., plastic plate)
• Rags
• Apron/protective clothing

Acrylic painters:

Recommended – Matisse Structure (75ml tubes)

• Zinc White
• Titanium White
• Cadmium Yellow Medium
• Yellow Light Hansa
• Cadmium Red Medium
• Brilliant Alizarine Crimson
• Ultramarine Blue
• Phthalo Blue
• Phthalo Green
• Yellow Oxide
• Burnt Sienna

- Matisse Polymer Satin Varnish

- Container for water

Oil painters:

Recommended – Art Spectrum (40ml tubes)

• Zinc White
• Titanium White
• Lemon Yellow
• Cadmium Yellow
• Spectrum Red
• Alizarin Crimson (or more affordable Spectrum Crimson)
• Ultramarine Blue
• Phthalo Blue
• Viridian (or more affordable Spectrum Viridian)
• Yellow Ochre
• Burnt Sienna

- Odourless Solvent

- Langridge Painting Medium

- 2x plastic containers with lids