Colour, Composition and Play; The Portland Workshops

We are excited to present to you the first of the Portland Workshops.  

With an award winning, highly experienced lineup of facilitators, these workshops are aimed to hone the focus of your art practice whilst creating community connections.

This first offering for these workshops include dynamic drawing, contemporary watercolour, abstract painting, and handbuilt ceramics presented by leading practitioners with a passion for their medium.

There is an option of joining us for a shared lunch and Saturday night dinner, as well as a music/ dance offering on Friday night. (All dietary requirements available)

The course descriptions below give you a taste of what is available, please click the web link for further information.

Accommodation is available both in Portland and Wallerawang; click the web link for further information and contact numbers

The workshops will be held on the historical grounds of the Portland Foundations, the cement works that built Sydney, opened in 1902. Portland is in the largest First Nations Country in Australia - Wiradjuri Country. 

Now a heritage listed site, The Portland Workshops are proud to present our first in-depth 2 day workshops on such a historical location, we can’t wait to have you join us!

Harrie Fasher Website - More Info

The Foundations Website

Colour, Composition and Play: The Portland Workshops
30th November - 1st December 2024, 9:00am-4:00pm

Expressive Drawing, From en plein air to the studio  - Jody Graham

Join Jody Graham for an intensive two-day workshop designed to master the art of transforming outdoor sketches into mixed media drawings and paintings developed in the studio. Be guided in selecting compelling compositions from a rich variety of subjects, including the industrial heritage architecture of the cement works, historic residential buildings, shopfronts, and natural quarry landscapes.  

A dynamic, energetic two days will leave you empowered to make decisions in the studio. 

About Jody:

Jody Graham’s practice encompasses drawing, mixed media, sculpture, performance, and installation. Materiality and mark making are at the core of Graham’s multidisciplinary art. She relentlessly explores new materials and investigates contemporary art making and drawing techniques.

Jody has frequent solo exhibitions and is frequently the finalist in major art prizes, winning both the Adelaide Drawing Prize and the Hornsby Sculpture prize 2022.  A Portland local, Jody is a key member of the Portland Workshops team

Jody Graham lives and works on Wiradyuri Country and Gadigal Wangal Country

Watercolour, A Contemporary Take - Gina Bruce

Fire your passion for watercolour by understanding traditional painting methods and learning contemporary mark making techniques. 

Whilst this workshop utilises subject matter that includes both still life and the heritage architecture and landscape of the Foundations, Gina will discuss how she uses techniques to reference memory and the subconscious.  

The Portland Workshops is proud to partner with Gina to galvanise unique and contemporary relationships between watercolour and place.

About Gina:

Award winning, internationally recognised painter Gina Bruce’s first love is watercolour. The outdoors her second, ‘working ‘en plein air’ is an intrinsic part of her practice. She is well recognised as being a finalist in the Sulman, Dobell and the Portia Geach Award, to name a few. Gina has extensive teaching experience including the National Art School, consolidated with a Masters in Teaching. 

Gina Bruce lives and works on Bidjigal and Gadigal Country.

Abstraction,Colour and Energy in Paint - Tonee Messiah

Build confidence in abstract painting methods. Tonee teaches how to read your experiences and translate them into creative abstract responses. Guiding you through the fundamentals of colour mixing, and translation of subject matter into colour as a tool of creative expression.  Her considered playful approach will establish confidence to develop  way into abstract thinking and making.

About Tonee:

Internationally recognised abstract painter, Tonee Messiah, transfers her energy for life into painting and teaching. She considers painting like another form of thinking, and as her surfaces build, so does her response to the world around her. Holding a Masters of Fine Arts (UNSW), Tonee, represented by galleries in Sydney and Melbourne, we are excited to have her teaching in the Portland Workshops.

Tonee Messiah lives and works on Gadigal-Wangal Country.

Ceramics and the Embodied Form - Holly MacDonald

Navigate your relationship with objects, memory and place, utilising handbuilt ceramic techniques.  Colour, shape, scale and texture will intuitively inform the direction your project takes guided by Holly’s skill, knowledge and enthusiasm for teaching, resulting in the construction of ceramic objects reflecting personal experience.  On completion, we will fire a piece and deliver it to a central Sydney location for pickup.

About Holly:

Holly Macdonald uses clay to interrogate the dynamic relationship between object, memory and place. Exhibiting throughout Australia, undertaking esteemed residencies both internationally and locally, and extensive teaching experience led us to asking Holly to join our teaching team. Integrating form, colour and line to produce vibrant and unique pieces Holly’s works question the form and make us interrogate the domestic and the embodied, allowing conversations to emerge about place, and the individuals relationship within it.

Holly MacDonald lives and works on Awabakal and Worimi Country.

We can't wait to see you!