The Lester Prize: Workshops
$60
Location:
WA Museum Boola Bardip, Woodside Learning Studios
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Explore your creativity with The Lester Prize Finalists
Join the 2026 Lester Prize finalists for a series of hands-on visual arts workshops at WA Museum Boola Bardip. Each two-hour session is led by a different finalist, who will share techniques and insights into their artistic practice.
Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced maker, enjoy a welcoming space to experiment, learn and create.
All materials are included in the ticket price. Explore the full program below.
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Explore our workshop schedule
Tuesday 13 Oct 10am – 12pm (Learning Studio 1)
Join Dale Rhodes - the artist behind "Cloudy" - in an upcoming workshop.
In this short workshop participants will look at key drawing information and techniques that make expressive portrait painting easier. Including, how to see the big shapes, finding the construction of the head and moving from line to mass as soon as possible.
Participants will then look at a simple and effective approach to colour mixing, including how to mix a basic dark flesh tone and basic light flesh tone.
Tuesday 13 Oct 1.30pm – 3.30pm (Learning Studio 1)
Join Sky Parra - the artist behind "Portrait of Scott Austic" - in an upcoming workshop.
Transform a photographic reference into an affective oil portrait in this two-hour workshop with artist Sky Parra.
Through demonstrations and experimentation, participants will explore gestural mark-making, play with colour relationships, identify essential forms and learn to render the distinct features of their subject.
This workshop considers how much, or rather how little, visual information is needed to create a sense of presence, inviting painters to preserve abstraction, ambiguity and accident alongside anatomical accuracy.
Designed for all experience levels, the session provides an accessible framework for creating portraits that are equally observational and expressive.
Thursday 29 Oct 5pm – 7pm (Learning Studio 1)
Join Yasamin Khadembashi - the artist behind "Immoral warrior" - in an upcoming workshop.
Participants will be introduced to my sculptural painting process through a hands-on paint piping workshop using Langridge Impasto Oil Paint and disposable piping bags.
The workshop will explore how ornament, pattern and texture can be translated into contemporary painting, drawing inspiration from a range of cultural, floral and decorative motifs.
Participants will create their own small painting while learning about preparing paint, transferring it into piping bags, and building raised surfaces.
Saturday 31 Oct 10am – 12pm (Learning Studio 1)
Join Anne Farrell - the artist behind "Held" - in an upcoming workshop.
Join artist and art educator Anne Farrell for a hands-on introduction to portrait drawing.
Designed for beginners of all ages, this workshop brings young people and grown-ups together, learning the same skills, sharing ideas and discovering different ways of seeing.
Through guided exercises, you’ll explore proportion, facial features, line, shape and tone before creating a sustained portrait from observation.
No previous drawing experience is necessary — just curiosity and a willingness to have a go.
Suitable for ages 8+
Thursday 5 Nov 5pm – 7pm (Learning Studio 1)
Join Lucinda Tassone - the artist behind "Beauty was shattered as light in a prism" - in an upcoming workshop.
In this introductory oil painting class, participants will learn a variety of classic and contemporary painting techniques including glazing and underpainting.
Lucinda will share her palette and painting process in a quick 20-minute demonstration.
Afterwards, the class will approach their own canvas board, with Lucinda providing one on one feedback.
Participants will have the opportunity paint either a human or object in the class, reflecting the subject matter of Lucinda’s practice.
Wednesday 18 Nov 5pm – 7pm (Learning Studio 1)
Join Harry Harrison - the artist behind "Portrait of Andrea" - in an upcoming workshop.
A workshop guiding you through elements of the “tonalist’ painting method of Australian master Max Meldrum. Meldrum was a famously charismatic and argumentative character, active in Melbourne 100 years ago, who insisted ‘there are no lines in nature’. Toward the end of his life he published ‘The Science of Appearances’ where he set out much of his method.
It was based on close observation and disciplined mindful mark making. Through this, you establish shapes with relative tones of dark and light which build into remarkable portraits. Clarice Beckett was a notable landscape painting member of his art school. His approach still has a strong influence on Melbourne painting.
Harry will introduce you to Meldrum and walk you through the fundamentals of his method as a way to build your observation skills, mark making and approach to beginning portraits.
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