Art Teachers
All art teachers at Fitzroy Painting are professional practicing artists with teaching experience who love to share their knowledge. Exhibiting regularly nationally and internationally, our teachers work in a variety of mediums, from painting and drawing through to sculpture, installation and paste-ups. Each teacher has had formal art training and each brings their own unique perspective, knowledge and skills to the studio. You are in good hands!
We also invite visiting artists to the studio as guest tutors to run fun, one-day specialised workshops covering a range of materials and techniques where students can try new techniques and materials, and take home finished work. We currently offer workshops in watercolours, drawing, oil painting materials and techniques, abstraction and portraiture. Our oil-painting portrait teacher is the 2018 Archibald Prize winner, Yvette Coppersmith.
You can find out more about all of our teachers, their current work and upcoming exhibitions by following the links under each artist bio on this page.
Fitzroy Painting and teachers are also on Instagram, for a sneak peek at what they are up to outside of the studio you can follow us on Insta here:
Fitzroy Painting | Adriane Strampp | Kez Hughes | John R Neeson | Yvette Coppersmith | Andrew Southall | Narelle Desmond | Judith Van Heeren
Fitzroy Painting Teachers
Adriane Strampp
Painting & Drawing Classes
Adriane Strampp is a professional artist who has held over 30 solo exhibitions around Australia, as well as participating in numerous group shows and art awards regularly.
Adriane has a Master of Fine Arts (by Research) from Monash University, has been teaching on a sessional basis for the last 15 years at diploma and degree levels and is represented by King St Gallery in Sydney, Gallerysmith in Melbourne, Hill Smith Gallery in Adelaide and Jan Manton Art in Brisbane.
Kez Hughes
Beginners Painting, Atelier Classes & Materials Workshops
Kez Hughes graduated from the Victorian College of the Arts and Music in 2015 with a Bachelor of Fine Art (Hons) Painting. Kez has gone on to lecture at the Ian Potter Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation at Melbourne University and the Victorian College of Arts and Music.
In 2015 along with artist Storm Gold, Kez opened CAVES, a curated, not for profit gallery located at the Nicholas Building in Melbourne, Australia.
John R. Neeson
Beginners Painting & Drawing Classes
John R. Neeson is a well known Melbourne based Artist/Educator. He has extensive teaching experience at a number of schools including the Victorian College of the Arts, Melbourne Polytechnic and Monash University. He has a PhD from Monash University and as a Samstag Scholar a research qualification from The Royal College of Art, London. In addition he has had numerous one person exhibitions in Australia and overseas. John has also been Artist in Residence at Tarrawarra Museum of Art, the Bundanon Trust, ARCO- Lisbon, ArtHouse -London and most recently Point B-New York, A-I-M-Berlin and Laughing Waters-Eltham.
Sessional Teachers
Judith Van Heeren
Watercolour Classes
Judith Van Heeren is a professional artist who has been painting images from the natural world for the past 30 years. She exhibits in private and public galleries, and her work is held in many public and private collections nationally and internationally. Judith has been finalist in prizes including the Geelong contemporary art prize and Waterhouse natural history art prize.
Narelle Desmond
Abstraction Classes
Narelle Desmond’s practice explores the physical properties of a broad range of materials through an examination of objects. Through aesthetic and conceptual considerations of object making, she considers how the function of objects can be manipulated and the broader context of materials themselves. Narelle recently held a solo show, Smart Objects Awkward Relations, at Caves Gallery in Melbourne and her work was recently on show as part of Unfinished Business: perspectives on feminism and art at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.
Yvette Coppersmith
Portrait Classes
Yvette Coppersmith exhibits nationally and internationally, and has been commissioned for portraits for public and private collections. Yvette has been a finalist of art prizes including the Archibald four times, the Doug Moran four times, the Portia Geach five times. Her 2017 Archibald portrait of Emirtus Professor Gillian Triggs is part of the Foxtel Arts doco ‘The Archibald’. Yvette won the inaugural Metro Prize in 2003 and began teaching painting/drawing in 2004. Yvette is the 2018 winner of the Archibald Prize.
yvettecoppersmith.com
Andrew Southall
Mixed Media Drawing Classes
Andrew Southall is an Australian artist whose practice includes abstract painting, figurative drawing, sculpture, printmaking and writing. He exhibits regularly and has works in many private and public collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, Art Bank and New Parliament House, Canberra.
Geoff Tolchard
Art Theory Classes
Geoff Tolchard is a UK-born Australian artist and lecturer living in Northern NSW, specialising in painting and drawing, with a strong interest in art history and theory.