Brisbane + Sunshine Coast Painting Workshops Recap
Feet just back on the ground here in cold, wet Sydney, I am pausing to reminisce over the wonderful memories, moments and work produced by my students over the three watercolour painting workshops weve just enjoyed in Brisbane and on the Sunshine Coast with our host, Bienarté. It was a great plan, flying north for the winter in itself I must say, but I return home enriched and inspired by my students, as I always am.
The flight in to Brisbane was so very beautiful, starting another workshop circuit enchanted by the magic and beauty of flying. Our studio in Brisbane is wonderful, large, light filled and comfortable with a fantastic big screen set up with is really helpful to myself teaching, and my students learning. Brisbane itself is also wonderful, relaxed, friendly and lots of fun. Our first two events are located here at Bienarté’s studio, and I always enjoy the bigger experience of coming to Brisbane to teach.
When I have groups who come with courage, and open hearts and minds, its truly the best thing and watching my students persevere, try, overcome and rise to the challenges is something that inspires me so much, I continue to be drawn to teaching. I thank every one of you for being a part of this wonderful Queensland workshop tour, it was an absolute pleasure… so lets take a little look at what weve been up to!
The three painting workshops covered Small Bird Painting, Butterfly Illustration and we explored a wonderful Kingfisher to complete this series of wonderful, creative challenges. Each presented us with specific painting lessons and learning, along with providing us with a brilliant overall taste of the techniques, medium, subjects and genre. Of course as with every painting, there is so much to learn, and that we certainly did!
Our focus for this bird painting workshop was focussed all around this gorgeous hummingbird, and what a wonderful learning subject it was for learning all about bird illustration. Working with a wonderful image captured by Ade Hall, we explored a wide range of techniques to create our intricate, realistic bird studies, working in a delicious palette of blue and turquoise. Layers, texture, timing, colour, technique and timing… we touched on it all.
Our second workshop got even more challenging, jumping in to the wild and wonderful world of BUTTERFLY ILLUSTRATION. What a divine focus it was too. Here I chose to work with an extremely challenging Buckeye butterfly, because it not only offered us so much to learn about the broader subject, but I really wanted to make the most of the opportunity to tackle the complex under such intimate guidance.
We learned how to approach difficult subjects, deconstructing and reconstructing the challenges to see a manageable and effective path forwards… and we did! This subject was complex, presenting us with an almost overwhelming mix of textures, colours, patterns, markings, symmetry and elegance to grasp and it was wonderful. It brought it all to us, and really gave us such a great taster to learn from, and with a little trust in me and the process along the way, with such beautiful results. Thank you to Gil Ewing for the original inspiration and image for this event, it was fab.
Finally, I made my way up to the Sunshine Coast for the third and final painting event, all about the Forest Kingfisher with my next group of smiling faces. This is my third Kingfisher painting workshop in a circuit by popular demand, deep diving into different kingfishers with each one from Melbourne to the Gold Coast and now the Sunshine Coast. Im so pleased we did as it has been a year of truly brilliant kingfisher focusses, lessons and paintings, both for me and my students – who were so willing to take on the task! I love my students. Again, we learned all about the subject, materials and techniques needed for this subject with such open hearts and minds to the challenge and growth. Of course the results were just so great!
In this workshop we really drilled down into drawing, technique, colour and creating those gorgeous ruffled feather textures that tumble over our kingfishers back in this study. Its a trick technical challenge, if you want to create realistic outcomes. We learned about transitioning colours and working in textural layers to create some really awesome results. There was so much learning in this workshop that you could see the improvement in a single painting. Beyond this, the knowledge and pathways forward became clear, giving my students a direct line of focus to build on, from and to improve.
Yasmine and Marcel are such beautiful people and hosts. Im missing waking up to a good coffee with cream and plates of fresh home grown fruit, nights of wine, board games and great company and warm days creating, teaching and learning with my students. A long trail home to cold, wet weather seemed such a departure, but the warm embrace of home, my love and my puppies was such a beautiful thing to return too. And just like that, Id travelled from the home of my birth place to my home, feeling loved and enriched, another fantastic teaching tour completed with a smile and so many new great memories.
Thank you for having me, thank you for joining me. Without you none of it can be possible! I look forward to working with you all again. Ill be back in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast again next year so let Bienarte know if youd like to be a part of it. Next Ill be on the Gold Coast for 5 days if you can make it to that event, and if youd like the full experience, we have our Tasmanian Painting Retreat coming up very soon too. Im starting to book into 2025 now and i will post a new annual workshop calendar in the coming months. The calendar can always be accessed from the home page of this site, and of course you can reach out to Bienarte or Artable in the links provided above to go on the notifications list. See you soon!
Not able to make a face to face event? Dont forget I have a range of painting lessons available for you to learn from on Patreon