Painting Masterclass: Sustain Your Practice

Do you want to develop your existing painting practice and deepen your knowledge of techniques, materials, styles and painting histories?

In this ‘artist-as-mentor’ course you will have the opportunity to revisit the intentions for individual pieces and build a broader capacity to think into and execute your work overall. Tonee Messiah shares her expertise and knowledge, as a practitioner and lecturer, working individually with students to reinvigorate the planning, processes and methods of painting, to build a robust practice from the bottom up.

The course gives you time to work in a professional studio environment with specialized art advice catered to your particular areas of interest. You will benefit from the collective ecosystem of studio practice, allowing conversation with peers and feedback from professional practitioners.

*Short courses are open to students of ages 16 years and over. For students under 16 years of age there are School Holiday Workshops, Art Club and other youth art programs.

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.

Tonee has been a finalist in the Hazelhurst Art on Paper Award, the Paddington Art Prize and the ABN AMRO Art Award. She has exhibited throughout Australia and internationally, and her work is held in Artbank, the Monash University Museum of Art, and many 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.

• Notebook and/or sketchbook, drawing paper such as cartridge and drawing media such as pencils, charcoal, compressed charcoal
• Oil/acrylic paints, bring whatever you have available and normally use
• For students using acrylic paint consider bringing acrylic painting medium (emulsion) or any other medium you use. Options can be discussed with tutor in the first class.
• For students using oil paint consider bringing a fast drying medium or any medium you usually use and solvent for cleaning up. Options can be discussed with tutor in the first class
• Brushes, square and round bristle – bring an assortment of sizes and whatever you usually use
• Palette for mixing paint. A flat white surface is ideal in either plastic, laminated wood or glass (approx. A3 size)
• Surfaces to work on. This may include prepared paper, stretched canvas, canvas boards etc. Select the surfaces and sizes you wish to work on
• Rubber gloves
• A block of domestic soap, a plastic sauce container with a plastic lid and some jars and rags
• If you are interested in exploring collage in your work you may like to bring fixative, scissors, small bottle of PVA glue and collage/scrap materials such as fabric, coloured patterned paper, card, thin plywood