Painting Fundamentals: From Representation to Expression

Are you new to painting or seeking new ways to expand your painting practice? This course offers a supportive and inspiring environment to explore techniques, methods and insights that build confidence and curiosity in your own paintings. Each week you will be encouraged to play, experiment, and find joy in the act of making. By approaching painting as an open-ended process rather than a fixed outcome, you will develop a stronger sense of personal expression and discover that every mark has potential.

Throughout the program we will work through a materials-driven, intuitive approach that encourages you to move beyond representational boundaries. Using mediums such as gouache and acrylic paints, participants will broaden their painting vocabulary by responding to the physical properties of paint and surface. Emphasis will be placed on embracing experimentation, guided by exercises informed by both historical and contemporary art movements. This program provides space for artists to reflect on their own practice and explore different methods of making a painting.

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

* What to bring? Please refer to the list of required materials in the Art Materials field below. 

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

General materials

• Rags and/or paper towels
• 1 or more palette knife for mixing and applying paint
• 1 x apron/protective clothing
• 1 x roll masking tape
• 2 x plastic palette or disposable palettes
• 3 x water jars
• 1 x A4 printout of a favourite painting
• 1 x stanley knife
• 1 x glue sticks
• 2 x bulldog clips
• 4L gesso (or white house paint)
• 1 x house paint brush for applying gesso to canvas
• Plastic palette
• Water jar
• 250ml bottle of Matisse drying retarder medium
  

Paints
All colors are suggested only and are not all essential for this course. The list includes warm and cool colours, however you are welcome to begin with what you already have in your collection. Please bring acrylic paints, gesso, and craft brown paper to the first class and the lecturer will discuss the materials with you. Student quality paints are fine, rather than more expensive professional artists’ quality paints.

• 1 x Titanium White
• 1 x Ivory Black
• 1 x Magenta
• 1 x Cadmium Red (warm red)
• 1 x Crimson (cool red)
• 1 x Cadmium Yellow Light or Lemon yellow (cool yellow)
• 1 x Cadmium Yellow Deep (warm yellow)
• 1 x Ultramarine Blue (warm blue)
• 1 x Cobalt Blue
• 1 x Indigo (cool blue)

Brushes

All brushes are welcome but you can choose cheaper alternatives. Brushes can be either synthetic or natural bristle.

• 3 or more paint brushes
• Combination of soft and hard bristles & in small, medium and large sizes (between approximately 50mm(max), 20mm, 10mm to 5mm wide.)
  - Flat brushes
  - Filbert brushes
  - Round brushes

Supports

• 1 x unprimed canvas roll: 1.84 x 6m (Officeworks)
• 5 x A1 sheets thick craft (brown) paper (Parkers Art Supplies - on campus)
  

Enclosed footwear is essential in all studios on campus.

Stephanie Eather is a visual artist, living and working between Naarm (Melbourne), Gadigal land (Sydney) and rural Eastern Australia. Her painting practice explores the intersection of memory, materiality, and textile sustainability, informed by both traditional and contemporary drawing sensibilities. Stephanie completed a Master of Fine Art (Drawing) in 2023 at National Art School in Darlinghurst. She holds a Graduate Certificate in Art History from the University of Melbourne in 2013, and a Bachelor of Fine Art (Drawing) obtained from RMIT in 2009.
Eather’s artwork has been showcased in group and solo exhibitions across Australia and has been selected for prizes including the Gosford Art Prize and the Dobell Drawing Prize #21 and #22. In 2022, Eather was awarded the Bonner and Tonkin Drawing Award and won runner-up for the Vincent Prize in 2024. She is currently represented by Nanda\Hobbs in Chippendale, NSW. She teaches drawing and painting at National Art School, Sydney and at The Art Room in Melbourne.

https://nandahobbs.com/artist/stephanie-eather