Have your questions answered as experienced artists' Ben Winspear and Caroline Lewallen walk you through the ins and outs of the many drawing materials, accessories, and surfaces available.

Come along as they discuss Pastels, Charcoal, Graphite, Conte, characteristics of different papers and much more!

Get the creative results you are looking for by learning what these versatile mediums and surfaces are and how to handle and prepare them.

About the Artist – Ben Winspear

Ben is a Melbourne based artist who works in both oil and watercolour.

His work encapsulates a wide range of subject matter; anything that inspires him at the time. His painting often runs the full spectrum from purely representational through to abstraction - as he seeks to develop a synthesis of both in his own unique and personal visual language to describe the world around him.

His two loves though are the portrait/figure and the Australian landscape and regularly paints both from life, often painting from the back of his car en route to teach classes or a workshop. Passing on his knowledge to those who attend his classes and workshops is his other passion as he seeks to ground them solidly in the traditions of observational drawing and painting with an informed use of quality materials.

He has been painting professionally for over fifteen years and has held several successful solo and joint exhibitions and been involved in numerous arts projects in the education field.

Ben is also a multi-award winner including winning the Castlemaine James Farrell Self Portrait Prize, the A.M.E. Bale Travelling Scholarship and Art Prize, and most recently the winner of the Victorian Artist Society 2020 Winter Exhibition.

About the Artist – Caroline Lewallen

Caroline’s artistic life sprung from her youth in picturesque Hobart, Tasmania. Even whilst determined on a career in nursing, as a child she would fill sketch books with drawings of human skeletons, copying illustrations from anatomy books.

Carving time to devote to her creative spirit was another story as she dabbled in oil and watercolour mediums throughout her 20s. Caroline became sidetracked for many years with a nursing career, travel and the needs of a young family but returned to art when she discovered pastels. Their satisfying immediacy, colour intensity and luminous qualities were irresistible.

More recently, Caroline has experimented with mixed media and returned to oil painting. Her subjects still link to the natural world and evoke an organic quality. She sees all places, objects and animals as potential subjects and frequently draws from her every-day surrounds and travels.

Caroline acknowledges creativity as an essential part of life’s balance, working in her home studio. She advocates for that joy in others, teaching a pastel painting class, which she considers a privilege.

She enjoys her role as an active committee member for the Pastel Society of Victoria, Australia (PSVA) and has held the Vice President position for the past five years. In 2019 Caroline was awarded a Signatory Membership with the PSVA and is an AGRA member.

Caroline continues to enter art shows in Melbourne and has been the recipient of many prizes, including Best in Show, Best Pastel and has many other awards for her pastels, drawing and mixed media. Several of Caroline’s paintings hang in the Whittlesea Council collection.

Workshop Details

Date: Friday 7th August

Where: ZOOM Live Stream

(filmed on location at our Bulleen store)

Time: 1pm – 4pm

Cost: $35

Register today by following the link below,