Soft Bodies: Ethereal figure drawing with Merryn Sommerville at SECCA

Join us for a drawing masterclass with artist, Merryn Sommerville.

Based in Bega, Sommerville is a graduate of the Australian National University School of Art and has gained growing accolade for her skill and focused practice on the feminine figure in contemporary drawing. She was a Winner of the Basil Sellers Art Prize and a selected artist in the Homeground Emerging Artist Program at Western Plains Cultural Centre. Recently, she was a selected artist in Bundanon’s pillar artist-in-residence program.

Sommerville uses an uncanny, emotionally evocative visual language to explore ideas of female autonomy, sexuality, disability, morality and mortality in her work. Known for her delicate and haunting use of the female figure through drawing, Sommerville will lead a two-hour workshop looking at inspiration from key figurative works now on display in the current exhibition at SECCA, the Dobell Drawing Prize #23.

In this masterclass participants will learn how to play with distortion in figuration as well as facilitate methods for approaching sensitivity and intuition when drawing. Sommerville will share artists who inspire her work and discuss how the body and facial expression can powerfully be used as vehicles to explore the human condition.

When: Sat 14 June 2025

Time: 11am – 1pm

Cost: $75 per person (plus booking fee). Bookings can also be made in person at SECCA.

Bookings essential. All materials provided.