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2023 Events

Zen Out & Draw (with Operation: Art)

Friday 26 May 10am, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital

If you’re looking for a relaxing space to destress and explore your creativity, then this could be what you’re looking for. Zen Out and Draw facilitates a comfy, encouraging environment to take a break from the worrying parts of life and find your artistic flow state. Take part in fun activities with expert guidance, or explore at your own leisure.


2022 Events

Gesture + Proportion II

8 October 11:30am - 1pm, with Studio Maverik
The Station, Fortitude Valley QLD

Join Studio Maverik for a technical life drawing workshop — guided by local artist Ella Senbruns.

The workshop will explore the elements of gesture and proportion within figure drawing. The session will consist of a short lecture with Ella and will be followed by a guided drawing session, with lots of space for questions and queries.


Arts Fiesta with UQ Union

Worked alongside UQ Union to deliver a series of creative workshops for students during the campus’ Cultural Week celebrations.

Foundations of Oil Painting I
Thurs 15th September, 5pm - 7pm

Every good oil painting starts with an underpainting, which is exactly the focus of this session! An underpainting can be thought of as the scaffolding for the super-structure that is a complex oil painting, and together we will work through the theory and practice of executing one strongly. All necessary materials will be provided, beginner friendly

Foundations of oil Painting II
Friday 16th September, 5pm - 7pm

This session builds on our underpaintings to create a finished artwork! Together we will explore techniques for creating strong colour palettes, luminous paintings and other approaches to complex detailing. Leaving this session you will be skilled to completing original artworks in oils paints.


‘Bad’ Life Drawing

1st September 6:30 - 8pm at Sure Studio, Petrie Terrace

In this figure drawing session we give classicism and realism the boot! If you're someone who finds picking up a pencil to draw daunting at best, and demoralising at worst, this session is for you. We will explore ways of embracing play and humour in our drawings, and challenge what it means to create a 'bad' drawing.

Leaving this session you will have greater confidence in creating drawings and have learnt unapologetically fun approaches for exploring creativity.


Drapery

11 August 6:30 - 8pm at Sure Studio, Petrie Terrace

In this session we will cover techniques for creating believable drawings of fabrics on the body. We will explore the properties of textiles, and discuss how we can describe the figure through drapery.

Leaving this session you will have an understanding of the behaviour of fabrics, and how to insinuate the body in your drawings without being able to directly see it.


Hair & Flow

21 July 6:30 - 8pm at Sure Studio, Petrie Terrace

In this session you will be guided through techniques to approach drawing hair. Ella will be taking the logic of these techniques and applying them to the figure to create drawings that are dynamic and graceful.


Unfurl: Figure & Line

6:30PM 22 June at Land Street Gallery, Baneraba (Toowong)

Sometimes less is more. In this session we will explore approaches to drawing that prioritise selective mark making, confident gestures and flow. Leaving this session you will have a greater understanding of how to create dynamism in drawings of the body, and in creating abstract artworks.


 

Hands & Feet

20 July 6:30 - 8:15PM with Studio Maverik
Warehouse 25, Milton

Hands & feet are typically trickier elements of capturing the body in drawing, so we will discuss how to best approach them.

All levels welcome. All drawing materials supplied.


Flesh & Abstraction Guided Figure Drawing

22 June 6:30PM at Land Street Gallery, Baneraba (Toowong)

In this guided figure session we discuss the "rules" of drawing flesh & muscle so we can create abstract artworks which break them. Come join us for a surreal and freaky night of life drawing!


Twin Moons: Acoustic Indie & Soul

23 June 6PM at Land Street Gallery, Baneraba (Toowong)

Join us on the 23rd for a night of live indie, jazz & soul! Performed by Brisbane's beloved Kalila and Sunny & Liav. Our venue is Land Street Gallery, currently showing the artworks of Ella Senbruns & Elias de Weger.


My Love, the Forest & I

Land Street Gallery, Baneraba (Toowong), QLD
11am - 4pm Thurs, Fri, Sat 5th - 26th June

My Love, the Forest & I presents the collaborative artworks of Elias de Weger and Ella Senbruns. Together these artists work across the mediums of drawing, painting and photography to examine the space that exists between the body and the Australian landscape.

Resonating throughout their imagery is a yearning for a human place within a "natural" environment, and a blurring of the boundaries between figure and landscape, within and without. De Weger and Senbruns share a delicate treatment of the figure which pulls its familiarity towards dissolution. There the human is consumed by the landscape, and the landscape is infected by the human.

Above left: Ella Senbruns, Grass Cradled by Moss, 2022
Acrylic ink on paper
14 x 21cm

Furthest Below: Elias de Weger, Murky Water, 2022
Archival inkjet print on paper

 

Face & Form

Sat 11th June, 10:30AM, Maverik Studio, Fortitude Valley

Join Studio Maverik for a technical life drawing workshop — guided by local artist Ella Senbruns.

The workshop will explore the elements of the face within figure drawing. The session will consist of a short lecture with Ella and will be followed by a guided drawing session, with lots of space for questions and queries.

All levels welcome | All drawing materials supplied | BYO sips

 

Surrealist Figure Drawing

Thurs 26st May, 6:30PM, Sure Studio, Petrie Terrace

In this session you will be guided through creating surreal artworks by using the human body as a starting point.

Ella will share drawing techniques for creating highly imaginative, dream-like, and other-worldly compositions, as well as some of the history of this art style. Leaving this session you will be skilled in working with the subconscious to create absurd and psychologically insightful drawings.

 

Gesture & Proportion

Sat 28th May, 10:30AM, Maverik Studio, Fortitude Valley

Join Studio Maverik for a technical life drawing workshop — guided by local artist Ella Senbruns.

The workshop will explore the elements of gesture and proportion within figure drawing. The session will consist of a short lecture with Ella and will be followed by a guided drawing session, with lots of space for questions and queries.

 

Animal Anatomy Workshop

Thurs 21st April, 6:30PM, Sure Studio, Petrie Terrace

This alternative life drawing class stars the Golden Retrievers Jayda and Honey as our life models. We will work through the anatomy of three types of animals: dogs, cats and horses, and reference detailed bone and muscle diagrams alongside our very good boys. Participants will leave this class with a range of strategies for drawing animals accurately, and with an understanding of how similar we are to our fuzzy friends!

 
 

Anatomy for Figure Drawing Workshop

10th March 6:30PM, Sure Studio, Petrie Terrace

ABOUT
In this session Ella will share with you key techniques in creating an anatomically correct human figure.

Focusing on several key areas of the human form, Ella will walk through the use of diagrams in combination with a live figure, looking at the skeletal and muscular layers within the body to create shadow and shape that is true to life.

Feel free to bring with you anything you would like to drink as you draw. All materials needed for the class will be supplied for you including reference images that can be taken with you after the session. Please arrive 15 minutes before the class begins to get settled before we begin.


Likeness & Self Portraiture Workshop

19th March 10:30AM, Pop Gallery, The Valley

ABOUT
In this workshop, participants will engage with their own image in the mirror – expanding upon the idea of “likeness” to explore expression and character in a series of unconventional life drawing activities. Participants are asked to bring their own mirror. Drawing materials & paper will be provided, however participants are welcome to bring their own dry materials. $20 pp. This will be a BYO alcohol / tea event.


Classical Figure Drawing

3 Feb 6:30 - 8pm at Sure Studio, Petrie Terrace

Within this session, attendants will be shown the fundamentals for constructing dynamic figure drawings. Participants will leave this class with knowledge in sensuous, lyrical linework for creating rhythm and flow throughout the body, strategies for approaching difficult perspectives, and illusionary shading techniques. A short introduction to the history of classical life drawing will also be included.

This class is beginner friendly and useful for artists who would like to revisit the fundamentals of life drawing.