Course Outline

Draw for delight, paint for peace, collage for confidence

Free up your creativity, while tuning in to strength, calm and joy. In this experiential course, you have the opportunity to explore the sensory qualities of materials and processes of drawing, painting and collage. You will be invited to play with colour, water, line, gesture, texture, layering and patterning to awaken the wisdom and pleasure of artmaking. You might scribble with the muscular vigour of oil pastels, meander lightly with watercolour, rip and reassemble tissue paper or drop doblets of thick acrylic onto a solid support. Each week, art explorations are linked with a theme, such as self-care, adaptability or interconnectedness.

You will be gently guided to connect with your creative impulse, letting go of pre-conceived ideas about how an artwork should look, or whether it’s ‘good enough’. Art is literally at your fingertips and can be a powerful resource for making meaning and locating yourself in the world. Sally Swain fosters a safe, non-judgemental, respectful environment within which creativity can flourish.

Sally’s educational approach is grounded in a belief that creativity flows within everyone and ‘where we are is where we begin’. She teaches you how to embrace ‘the art of emergence’; build trust in creative process and cultivate confidence that something of value will arise. Sally encourages you to apply ‘kindfulness’ (mindfulness plus self-compassion) to your artmaking; to allow your natural self-expression and to risk making a mess or mucking it up!

The course is open to people at all levels of perceived skill or experience. The focus is on creative confidence, insight and personal well-being, rather than technical excellence. Amidst a supportive community, it is an opportunity to free up, tap the power of creative play and apply your discoveries to daily life.

*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.

Course Delivery

Sally’s online studio course is taught with Zoom and takes advantage of the full range of tools that this program offers. She is present in the online studio for the whole session and she responds directly to student questions in live critiques and discussions.

Class sizes are limited to a maximum of twelve students and the sessions are not recorded.

Student home-studio requirements

A computer, laptop or ipad with a good internet connection
Digital camera to photograph practical exercises for feedback

Lecturer Profile

Sally Swain has a long-term passion for linking artmaking to wellbeing and for supporting individual, group and community creativity to blossom. She delights in fostering the joy, depth and meaning that arise from playing with art materials and processes.

Sally initiated Art and Soul Creativity Coaching in 1993. A registered arts therapist, she has brought her unique practice into many contexts including cancer recovery centres, grief cafes, carers’ retreats, women’s conferences and arts festivals. She pioneered art therapy programs for residents, relatives and staff in aged care facilities. In this course Sally synthesises thirty years of Art and Soul practice into a new mode of learning for the NAS Short Courses Public Programs. Sally is highly regarded for her internationally best-selling book, Great Housewives of Art, which she conceived, painted and wrote in the 1980s and which remains popular to this day. She relishes facilitating groups on Zoom, supporting a remarkable depth of connection across diverse life stages, beliefs and geographies. www.artandsoul.cc

Art Materials

Paper
A3 cartridge pad e.g. Quill Cartridge Paper Sketch Pad 110gsm
A4 or A3 watercolour paper pad of smooth, hot-pressed paper e.g. Art Spectrum Draw and Wash pad of 210gsm weight
A collection of found papers, such as small packet tissues, 3 – 6 sheets coloured tissue paper, several sheets coloured paper or black paper, recycled cardboard food cartons, brown paper bags

 Paints
Gouache: One set gouache paints e.g. Reeves set of 12 or Derwent Academy set of 24
Acrylic: One set acrylic paints e.g. Reeves set of 12 or 24
Watercolour: Micador watercolour set of 36, or Koh-i-noor Brilliant watercolour disc for more vivid colours

Brushes
1 or 2 aquabrushes e.g. Pentel Aquash
1 or 2 sable round brushes e.g. Roymac
1 or 2 hog hair flat brushes e.g. Artist Spectrum

Miscellaneous
Faber-Castell set of 20 connector pens
Micador set of 24 or Caran d’Ache Neocolour set of 15
3 – 6 magazines for collage
assorted easily gathered objects such as fabric fragments, threads, beads, feathers
up to 1 meter unbleached calico
Plastic compartmentalised palette or a white china plate
2B pencil, black fine-liner marker pen, biro and plain or ruled notebook
PVC-based glue, rags to wipe brushes, water jar, scissors

Note: You can add more materials as the course progresses or you might already have slightly different materials of your own, which is fine e.g. brushes, acrylic or gouache paints.

Parkers Fine Art Supplies

Parkers Fine Art Supplies have a location of the NAS campus and offer a discount for NAS short courses students. To discuss and order art materials please contact Parkers on +61 2 9247 9979 or email [email protected]
Website https://www.parkersartsupplies.com/