Weekend Art Workshop with Ashley Hay
Responding through Paint, Texture & Layer
Explore texture, composition, and layered surface through an immersive mixed media process that transforms ideas into richly expressive contemporary artworks.
Textured Art II: Constructed Terrain is an investigation into surface, materiality, and personal interpretation using paint, collage, texture mediums, and layered processes to create dimensional artworks inspired by your chosen subject matter.
This is not a traditional painting class.
It’s about constructing an artwork through texture, experimentation, and response.
Whether your inspiration comes from landscape, still life, coastal forms, botanical imagery, abstraction, weathered surfaces, or personal narrative, this workshop invites you to interpret your subject through expressive mixed media techniques and material exploration.
During a weekend intensive, delivered in two sessions (9am-4.30pm), you’ll move from observation and texture studies into compositional development, surface construction, and final image resolution, gradually building a richly layered contemporary artwork full of depth, atmosphere, and tactile presence.
Session 1: Texture Exploration & Visual Response - Sat Morning
Working from your own reference photographs and visual inspiration, we’ll begin by identifying textures, patterns, structures, and visual qualities within your subject matter.
Through guided experimentation using paint, collage, mark-making, and texture mediums, such as Powertex Easy Structure, Stone Art, and Easy3DFlex, you’ll create exploratory samples and textured studies that investigate surface possibilities and material response.
This session focuses on observation, experimentation, and opening up creative possibilities through process.
(Participants are encouraged to bring their own reference material to create work that feels personal and meaningful. Reference images will also be available.)
Session 2: Composition & Development of Ideas - Sat Afternoon
This session focuses on composition, structure, and visual direction.
Using the studies and ideas developed in the morning session you’ll begin constructing your artwork through layering, placement, and compositional decision-making. We’ll explore how texture, shape, movement, and contrast can guide the eye and strengthen visual impact.
Participants will begin building their surface while refining their ideas and establishing the overall direction of the work.
Session 3: Building Surface & Layered Texture - Sunday Morning
In this session, we’ll deepen the physical surface of the artwork.
Using a variety of Powertex mediums and mixed media techniques, you’ll apply layered textural effects to build complexity, atmosphere, and dimensionality within the painting surface.
We’ll explore how texture can suggest erosion, movement, age, memory, rhythm, and energy - allowing the surface itself to become part of the visual language of the artwork.
Session 4: Resolution, Colour & Cohesion - Sunday Afternoon
Our final session focuses on bringing the artwork together as a resolved whole.
Through colour application, refinement, highlighting, editing, and surface integration, you’ll strengthen depth, atmosphere, and compositional balance while evaluating what is - and isn’t - working within the piece.
Participants will be guided through the important final stages of decision-making, learning how to make intentional adjustments that bring greater cohesion, confidence, and clarity to the artwork.
What You’ll Explore
• Experimental textured surface techniques
• Working with Powertex Easy Structure, Stone Art & Easy3DFlex
• Layering paint, collage, texture, and mixed media materials
• Composition, visual balance, and surface development
• Translating personal imagery into expressive contemporary artworks
• Individual artistic feedback and creative guidance
• Developing confidence in intuitive mixed media processes
• The completion of a richly layered textured artwork
This workshop invites you to slow down and engage deeply with process, material, and personal expression - discovering how texture, paint, and layered construction can transform the way you approach image-making.
All materials are supplied.
Limited places available.
Workshop Fee:
$375 - 2 FULL DAYS
Includes all materials and guided instruction.
If you’re ready to explore texture, surface, and contemporary mixed media processes in a deeper and more expressive way, secure your place today and continue your journey through the evolving Textured Art series.
This workshop forms part of the broader Textured Art Journey - a five-part exploration of surface, paint, material, and personal expression. Each workshop stands alone, yet together they form a deeper investigation into how we construct and respond to imagery through texture and layer. They can be taken in any order.
About Ashley
Ashley Hay is a contemporary mixed media artist whose practice explores texture, surface, and intuitive response through drawing, painting, sculpture, and layered assemblage.
Known for building richly textured artworks that blur the boundaries between constructed surface and painterly expression, Ashley often incorporates recycled materials, experimental processes, and sculptural layering to create works full of depth, atmosphere, and material presence.
From her home studio in Safety Bay, Ashley facilitates small-group workshops that encourage both technical exploration and personal artistic development. Grounded in process, material experimentation, and creative response, her teaching invites participants to slow down, build confidence, and create work that feels genuinely their own.
Tickets for good, not greed Humanitix dedicates 100% of profits from booking fees to charity
