Fine Art Studios


Please ensure you have enrolled in the Fine Art Studio course in enrolment online.

You do not preference this course. Students will be allocated to their home studio's course relevant to their year level.

(Note: There is a separate page for Workshop classes and a separate page for ART: History+Theory+Cultures classes).

The Fine Art Studios are offered under the following course codes:

Fine Art Studio 2 VART 3645 (1st year)
Fine Art Studio 4 VART 3647 (2nd year)

For more information about a course, please contact the Studio Lead of the offering studio or course coordinator.

Please find link to the course guide VART3645 or VART3647.

Please note:

  • Fine Art Studio classes are 24 credit point courses and will require 6 contact hours per week.
  • Although we would like to offer all of the Fine Art Studio options below, classes are subject to viability and may not run if numbers are too low.

Course Information


  • Course Coordinator
  • Teacher
  • Contact hours
  • Location
  • Open to all students

Offering Studio & Studio Lead


  • Ceramics – Kris Coad
  • Drawing – Greg Creek
  • Gold & Silversmithing – Mark Edgoose
  • Painting – Sarah Tomasetti
  • Photography (BP117) Course – Alan Hill
  • Print – Richard Harding & Andrew Gunnell
  • Sculpture – Fleur Summers
  • Video & Sound- Greg Creek

Andrew Gunnell, Range, 2019, Lithograph and Pigment Inkjet

Alchemy: Technique, Mediation and the Artist's Response


  • Andrew Gunnell
  • Andrew Gunnell and Deb Williams
  • Thursdays 9.30am – 12.30pm & 1.30pm – 4.30pm
  • 49.02.02
  • Fine Art Studio 2 (print)

Through practical workshops this course introduces and explores a range of processes and techniques of lithography and etching as a medium that extends and compliments drawing. Using reproductive techniques with their inherent alchemy, history and transformative principles, students will explore and develop strategies to respond to unintended results and the mediation of the medium with consideration of their idea. Students will be encouraged to find alternative directions in order to produce new artworks while developing a generative art practice. 


Andy Goldsworthy Oak Room 2022 (image credit - Simon Perry)

Body and Space


  • Simon Perry
  • Simon Perry
  • Thursdays 9.30am – 12.30pm & 1.30pm – 4.30pm
  • 37.01.03
  • Fine Art Studio 2 (sculpture)
This course seeks to extend your knowledge and skills through a practical investigation into various aspects of the body, its representation, and its spatial relations in sculptural practice. In the first half of semester these investigations will focus on the fragmented body, through practical studies in modelling, casting, and constructing the human head and other body parts. In the second part of semester students will undertake a series of self-directed, installation-based projects which focus on more expanded notions of the body and space, with an emphasis on presence and absence of the body in sculpture, making, materiality and embodiment, and the framed and choreographed body.

Image Credit: Samantha O’Farrell

Clay as Political and Social Commentary 


  • Kris Coad
  • TBC
  • Tuesdays 9.30am – 12.30pm & 1.30pm – 4.30pm
  • 04.01.01
  • Fine Art Studio 2 & 4 (ceramics)

This course explores how to respond to socio, economic, and political themes through clay. Students will explore and experiment with different forming techniques and surface finishes in relationship to concept. 

 

 

 

Please note: Ceramics Fine Art Studio 2 and Ceramics Fine Art Studio 4 will be delivered as one class with the above times/details. 


Iona Julian-Walters, studio view 2021, various media

Extended Drawing Practices


  • Greg Creek
  • Rie Delange, Elyss McCleary, TBC
  • Thursdays 9.30am – 12.30pm & 1.30pm – 4.30pm
  • 04.05.05
  • Fine Art Studio 2 (drawing)
In this course you will extend your Drawing practice, enrich and deepen your skill base and explore how to use and transform traditions of drawing and its relations with other mediums. Experimentation and play with concepts, materials, techniques and processes is encouraged to develop new ways of reflecting on and critiquing your practice. You will test how drawing practices extend beyond the studio to both employ and transform meaning. You will explore identity and transformative practices, in relation to new ways of making and installing a range of works. A selection of initial themed projects will lead to you developing a self-directed and resolved body of work. To gain experience, skills and knowledge in developing a career in the art industry you will review and analyse Exhibition Projects and artists practices. Additional lectures, skills demonstrations and gallery visits will demonstrate how contemporary artists employ drawing concepts and methods that directly extend their studio practice. 

Cara Johnson, Hollow 2020, found tree guard, found silage net. Wood duck I 2020, paper, wood ash, found silage net. Image Tom Ross

Gold & Silversmithing Narratives


  • Mark Edgoose
  • TBC
  • Thursdays 9.30am – 12.30pm & Tuesday or Thursday 1.30pm – 4.30pm
  • 02.01.03
  • Fine Art Studio 2 (G&S)

In this course, you will explore how narrative can be used as a starting point in creating Jewellery and Objects by using gold & silversmithing processes with natural found materials when responding to thematic projects.  The exploratory nature of this course will extend your material and process knowledge through a range of narratives as we design a sustainable future. 

Your research and idea development will define and position your subject through the making of jewellery and objects. At the end of the semester you will have produced jewellery and objects that tell a story. 



Performprint 2016, Out of the Matrix Exhibition, Image courtesy of Tobias Titz

Out of the Matrix


  • Andrew Gunnell
  • Heather Hesterman & Joel Gailer
  • Tuesdays 9.30am – 12.30pm & 1.30pm – 4.30pm
  • 49.02.02
  • Fine Art Studio 4 (print)
In this course you will explore the unique possibilities offered by the Matrix for duplication, multiplication and the unique through experimenting with reproductive technologies. You will utilise a range of technologies and materials, including digital, intaglio, photographic and/or serigraphic processes to diversify your options for print production. You will deepen your analytical thinking and making skills through the combination of conceptual and technical development. In consultation with your lecturer, you will take responsibility for the determination of your study program through set assignments with a major self-directed studio project. 

Kylie Stillman 'Big Picture' 2020
Hand-cut paperback books and timber base
Collection of Town Hall Gallery, City of Boroondara

Painting, Narrative and Place


  • Steven Rendall
  • Steven Rendall & Kylie Stillman & Phil Edwards
  • Tuesdays 9.30am – 12.30pm & 1.30pm – 4.30pm
  • 02.03.04
  • Fine Art Studio 4 (painting)

In this course you will be introduced to historic and contemporary art practices that approach the concept of storytelling and setting, leading to individual self-directed outcomes. With a focus on both abstract and representational forms, the course will examine the diverse ways in which artists engage narrative interpretations from individual experience to shared stories, whether real or fictional. Through studio-based investigation you will explore works that respond to content that articulates representations of place: incorporating the real, imagined and virtual. 

 You will consider the history of painting and its influence on the production of contemporary narrative. Investigate the role of the internet on the discipline of painting and explore the networks and narratives between place and paintings, online and in real space. 

You will be encouraged to explore the medium of painting and related media, as a means of visual mapping, storytelling, communication and the translation of non-visual content into individual art works. You will experience working in series, exploring both reductive and expansive strategies of studio production. You will respond to a range of thematic projects that will lead to independent self-directed outcomes in a variety of media.   

You will gain experience, skills and knowledge in developing a career as a professional artist through an Exhibition Project, where you will curate, exhibit, critique and document your work in a collaborative theme-based group exhibition. You will experience individual tutorials, peer-to-peer discussion and group feedback sessions, online learning, demonstrations, health safety and proposal writing for professional practice and student presentations. 


PETER ELLIS, TITIAN’S GHOST, 1998, SYNTHETIC POLYMER EMULSION, GOUACHE, COLLAGE ON CANVAS PANEL

Painting Transformations


  • Saffron Newey
  • Saffron Newey & Adam Lee TBC
  • Thursdays 9.30am – 12.30pm & 1.30pm – 4.30pm
  • 02.03.04
  • Fine Art Studio 2 (painting)

In this course you will develop your own unique studio practice in relationship to the diverse field of contemporary art. You will expand, transform and deepen your Painting Studio Practice in experimental and innovative ways and discover new strategies for developing your imagination and generating ideas.

You will develop a self-initiated practice, complemented by a series of open-ended projects where you will experience the interdisciplinary nature of painting as image, object and installation. Outcomes may include a range of paintings, drawings, collages, objects, digital and photographic works and related support materials that exemplify a Contemporary Art Practice. Through a contemporary studio investigation, exploring concepts, technologies and skills, you will develop an individual, flexible studio work proposal that is sustainable, and research focused to your individual ideas.

Complementing your studio practice will be a series of visual lectures on historic and contemporary art and artists; including on site at the NGV which will focus on the historic & contemporary technical aspects of methods of production and contemporary ideas. This Fine Art Painting Studio course aims to –Encourage self-motivation, sustainable studio working methods, highlight lateral approaches to problem solving and ways to expand and extend ideas, techniques and skills. You will experience individual tutorials, peer-to-peer discussion and group feedback sessions, student presentations, field trips, online learning, demonstrations, health and safety; experiences that will enrich and sustain your continued development as artists in a supportive and stimulating environment. 


Emily Kooter, Corridor-butterfly affect, 2018, pigment on paper, torchlight

Passages: Art and Encounter


  • Ben Sheppard
  • Ben Sheppard & TBC
  • Tuesdays 9.30am – 12.30pm & 1.30pm – 4.30pm
  • 4.5.05
  • Fine Art Studio 4 (drawing)
In this course you will consolidate your emerging practice as contemporary art employing and disrupting conventions of making and extending ideas of creativity and communication beyond the studio to exhibition. We are in a critical time where histories and narratives are being challenged, rethought and reactivated. A lot of this work is being done by artists testing the idea of art as an experiential threshold. You will explore personal, public or political ideas relevant to your studiowork leading to the development of resolved and self-directed projects. The course is framed by theories of the viewer and the art object, how meaning is generated within the contexts of local & global histories, exhibition spaces and artist initiatives. You will analyse artists practices, navigate the path from studio to installation, gain experience, skills and knowledge in developing a career as a professional artist and participate in a collaborative Exhibition Project.

David Altjmed Orbit 2019 (White Cube Gallery)

Sculptural Transformations


  • Fleur Summers
  • Fleur Summers, Simon Perry and Vittoria Di Stefano
  • Tuesdays 9.30am – 12.30pm & 1.30pm – 4.30pm
  • 31.01.02
  • Fine Art Studio 4 (sculpture)

This course aims to further develop your sculptural practice by focusing on an individual and hands-on approach to making. You will expand, transform and deepen your sculptural practice in experimental and innovative ways and continue to discover new strategies for fostering your imagination and generating ideas. You will further refine and develop your self-initiated interests in concepts, materials and methods in ways that explore the diverse field of contemporary sculpture. 

This will be complemented by a series of open-ended projects which will allow you to be productive in an intuitive and creative way and build a deeper understanding of your own interests in 3D practice. In response to this work, you will research and document a series of artists, works and themes or ideas and begin to build an archive of research material to draw on in the future. You will also gain experience, skills and knowledge in developing a career as a professional artist and participate in a collaborative exhibition project. 


LISA WALKER, PLAYMOBILE, PLASTIC, COTTON THREAD, 2010, COLLECTION NATIONAL GALLERY VICTORIA

The Ready Made in Gold & Silversmithing


  • Mark Edgoose
  • TBC
  • Tuesdays 9.30am – 12.30pm & Tuesday or Thursday 1.30pm – 4.30pm
  • 02.01.03
  • Fine Art Studio 4 (G&S)

In this course, you will investigate the place of the Ready Made, the Re Made and the Re Purposed in contemporary jewellery and objects. By researching existing materials and objects and how they present and live in the world you will find new contexts from existing objects and forms. You will explore how pre-existing objects can be altered, remade and adapted to create new work. This will provide opportunities to consider how the viewer engages with jewellery and objects through the pre-existing narratives, connections to form and the inherent material qualities in the collected objects. 

The exploratory nature of this course will extend your material and process knowledge, develop skill, (and the use of tools) through the concept of the broken and explore techniques associated with repair.  


Shana Moulton, Personal Steam, Interface, 2019

Video & Sound Art Studio


  • Greg Creek
  • TBC
  • TBC
  • TBC
  • Fine Art Studios 2 & 4 (video)
Please contact studio lead Greg Creek for course details.