Art Teachers
All art teachers at Fitzroy Painting are qualified, 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, each bringing 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 tutors are the 2018 Archibald Prize winner Yvette Coppersmith, and Troy Argyros, a recent graduate of The Florence Academy of Art in Florence, Italy.
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 we are up to outside of the teaching studio you can follow us here:
Fitzroy Painting | Adriane Strampp | Kez Hughes | Judith Van Heeren | Ebony Truscott | Julian Aubrey Smith | Troy Argyros | Rachael Robb | Yvette Coppersmith | Narelle Desmond | John Waller
Fitzroy Painting Teachers
Adriane Strampp
Painting & Drawing Classes
Adriane Strampp is a professional artist who has held over 35 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, taught on a sessional basis for 15 years at diploma and degree levels and is represented by King St Gallery in Sydney, Gallerysmith in Melbourne and Jan Manton Gallery in Brisbane. She has been a finalist multiple times in the Sulman, Geelong Contemporary and Len Fox prizes.
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, and runs private art classes in her city studio.
Judith Van Heeren
Watercolour & Beginners Painting 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.
Ebony Truscott
Painting & Drawing Classes
Ebony Truscott is an Australian artist employing observational realism in painting and works on paper. Her work is marked by an interest in human sensation and perception, particularly the relationship between sight and touch. She has taught at the National Gallery of Australia, The University of Melbourne, The Victorian College of the Arts, and teaches at Fitzroy Painting on Monday evenings. Ebony is represented in Melbourne by Niagara Galleries.
Rachael Robb
Beginners Painting Level 1 & 2 Classes
Rachael Robb graduated from RMIT with a Bachelor of Fine Art in 1990 and recently returned to Australia (Feb 2020) after 28 years living and working in London. Painting small scale on wood panel, her works draw upon old master techniques and are held in private collections both here and internationally. Rachael has exhibited in the USA, England, Czech Republic and Australia. Rachael is a 2022 finalist in the Darling Portrait Prize at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra.
Julian Aubrey Smith
Drawing Studio 1 & 2
Julian Aubrey Smith is an artist based in Melbourne. His practice is propelled by mining the conventions of traditional realist painting for new permutations. He graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from RMIT University in 2003 and completed a Master of Fine Arts (Visual Art) at the Victorian College of the Arts in 2014.
He is the recipient of the 2014 Nino Sanciolo Prize, an Australian Postgraduate Award and an Australia Council for the Arts New Work Grant. He has taught at Latrobe College, RMIT University, The University of Melbourne and the Victorian College of the Arts.
Sessional Teachers
Troy Argyros
Classical Atelier
Troy Argyros is a classical realism painter specialising in still life, portraiture and landscape painting, and runs ten-week courses at Fitzroy Painting in portrait drawing and painting, landscape and still life.
He holds a Bachelor of Fine Art Painting and a Graduate Diploma of Visual Art Education from Monash University, and is a recent graduate of The Florence Academy of Art.
Troy’s work is featured in private collections internationally, and has been selected for exhibitions such as The AME Bale Travelling Scholarship and the Art Renewal Centre International Salon. In 2017 Troy was awarded The Graeme Hildebrand Prize For Emerging Artists in the oil painting category.
Yvette Coppersmith
Portrait Workshops
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
Narelle Desmond
Abstraction Workshops
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.
John Waller
Abstraction Workshops
John Waller is an Australian artist and educator, his paintings are derived from the landscape he has an emotional empathy with. He practices a mode of landscape-based abstraction which was inaugurated by Paul Cézanne in the 1880s, and has dominated contemporary painting ever since.