Amateur art class in session

WITH classes available for both adults and kids, Sturt Street Gallery and Classes owner and facilitator Juli Davine is excited to resume her creative program for beginners.

Currently taking bookings for her six-week watercolour, pen, ink and gouache program beginning 21 January, Ms Davine said each program only requires two hours of participation per week.

“It’s an introduction to watercolour for someone who has either never touched it or someone who has been looking online at stuff wondering how things are done,” she said.

“It’s touching on the absolute basics, gives you plenty of time to get used to it and you can always come back for a more involved class after the program.

“Water colour’s great because you can put it under charcoal, under acrylic, everything but it is the hardest medium, and it takes a lot of work to get a good water colour.”

In addition to the six-week watercolour program, the centre also offers acrylic and oil painting, graphite and charcoal drawing and pastel artwork classes to anyone wanting to get involved.

Charging $25 for each two-hour class, Ms Davine said participants only need to bring their creativity, as all materials necessary for the program are supplied.

“I also have some of the art supplies in stock for the students to buy because they will say they can’t find things or they’re too expensive for their work outside of the program,” she said.

“For a lot of people, it’s their only social event, they feel safe because I have done all the cleaning, we wear masks and have the tables socially distanced, it’s better than not having any art.

“It’s a time to yourself to relax and zone out a little bit. It’s all about finding your inner artist.”

Although the space formerly lent itself to sporadic gallery exhibitions, Ms Davine said now the focus is just the art programs.

“We did have a gallery component but the classes took over,” she said. “We’ve had four or five exhibitions in here, mainly for charitable groups, because that’s all I wanted to do, it’s a lot of work though.”

To learn more or book in for a class, contact Sturt Street Gallery and Classes on Facebook or at sturtgallery.com.