Art as a Conversation Starter and Community-Builder

I stumbled upon the work of Detroit based artist Marcus Glenn last month and was instantly drawn to his paintings of people viewing paintings in art galleries. I liked how...

Pierre Soulages, Lithographie n° 36, 1974

Black Acrylic Paint

Black paint gave me a hard time. I struggled to use it in a way that made sense. Found its lack of nuance disturbing. I am not referring to dark...

Orientalism in Painting

In 19th-century art, one finds a set of paintings with extremely detailed depictions of the East—especially the Arab world and North Africa. These lands are presented as exotic, sensual and...

The Philosophy of Gardens

Anybody familiar with the great myths, legends and epics of history will know that gardens have long fascinated the human mind—from the tale of Gilgamesh to the Bible to the...

Lucio Fontana’s “Infinite Dimension”

A modern artist whom I find very intriguing for philosophical reasons is the Argentine-Italian painter, sculptor and theorist Lucio Fontana (1899-1968). Fontana was the founder of “spatialism”, a movement that...

The wondrous Medieval Bestiary

In conversational English, the word “medieval” carries plenty of negative connotations. Many of us see that era in Europe as a time of superstition, stagnation and fear that was, thankfully,...

Exhibition dates: 4 – 17 April Opening: 6 April 6pm – 9pm Location: Brunswick Street Gallery I began to reflect on the King River as a source. Its river stone...

Marco ran an Abstract Painting Course over the long weekend. Over seven hours, students explored colour theory, conceptual elements, tone, colour and composition in an artwork. Students were given a...

Fractured Dwellings: Rosi Griffin

Paintings that describe fragmented domestic spaces populated with disintegrating walls, are timely. They come when the industrial spaces around Rosi Griffin’s Collingwood studio are rapidly transforming with new developments continually...

Vincent Van Gogh’s works at the NGV

Over the three months that Melbourne is home to an awe-inspiring collection of Van Gogh’s works spanning his life and representative of the seasons through which he viewed and painted...

The origins of the selfie

When paint brushes were more prevalent than selfie sticks selfie /ˈsɛlfi/ noun informal a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and...

Still life and life model paintings from Term 4

We had our talented regulars, plus a few new faces in our Painting Course this Term, and it was a fantastic class. Hilmi’s teaching is based on traditional oil painting...

Children and art

The assimilation of new techniques into children’s art work. I have returned to teaching a children’s class after two years focused upon developing the adults’ classes. I came into this...

New day art classes at MAC!

We have been asked for a long time now, when will we be holding art classes during the day?! Well, we are excited to announce we will be running two...

Still Life works from Term Two!

This first half of Hilmi’s Painting Class for Term Two focused on one composition with different Still Life objects, and we are so proud of the works they produced. The class...

We recently held an Abstract Painting Workshop with Irene over the Queen’s Birthday long weekend. Students followed a process which took them from creating a collage from coloured paper and some...

Works from our Painting Students

Hilmi’s Painting Class for Term One focused on one composition with different Still Life objects. Students could choose what would feature in their work, including shiny porcelain vases, old books,...

Tim McMonagle – Buangor

Gnarly eucalyptus trees often seen on a well-travelled stretch of road near the town Buangor, in country Victoria, was the starting point for Tim McMonagle’s latest exhibition. Buangor is a...