Nature In Watercolour - 5 days - GOLD COAST - OCTOBER 2024 with Heidi Willis

Great news everyone!  We have the incredible Heidi Willis back on the Gold Coast for this exciting event over 5 days, deep diving into a multitude of watercolour painting techniques and gorgeous natural history subjects. This workshop delves into all things realistic watercolour and nature, with an aim of improving your painting skills, knowledge, building your confidence and creating practical strategies forward towards improved independent painting.  If you'd like to jump in on this event, brush up on your existing painting skills, learn something new from scratch, meet likeminded creative people and enjoy a little exhale in your busy schedule playing with the brushes in a beautiful space, let us know.
 

You can be an absolute beginner, but you must have an eye for detail and enjoy working slowly. This style of work is all in the detail and incredibly rewarding for those who have the patience.  Join Heidi in exploring and learning more about the intricacies of the watercolour medium working in realism. You will create incredibly detailed artworks and learn a wide range of techniques for a lifetime of art practice. 

The specific subjects are yet to be determined, but Heidi is thinking she will cover 2 days of botanicals, 2 days on a small bird and 1 day on a butterfly study, giving you a fantastic cross section of creative challenges and practical learning. Heidi is really looking forward to mixing things up in this amazing workshop.

Heidi's students rave about her workshops and the value that they get. She is renowned for being able to teach even the most nervous of beginners and she attracts an intensely loyal following as a result. This workshop is perfect for nature lovers, and for those who appreciate detail and have the patience needed to build detail using watercolour. 

Don't worry if you're new to this type of illustration, you are learning from the best and Heidi will guide you through step by step. 

YOU WILL LEARN

  • The intricacies of botanical & small bird illustration
  • About watercolour as a medium and how to make the best use of it for realism
  • Relevant rendering techniques and the best processes and materials to use.
  • About working with pigment rich and poor pigment wash
  • Fine detail
  • Creating texture
  • Practical strategies for better results

MATERIALS LIST

Please scroll to the bottom of page to see Heidi's materials list for 2024.

LOCATION
Sculptors Society Gold Coast, 173 Ashmore Rd/Carrara St, Benowa QLD 4217

BOOKING CONDITIONS

Please note that Artable does not provide refunds for workshops under any circumstances. If you provide more than 7 days notice, you can apply for a credit to another workshop. Check our refunds page for further details and COVID-19 related policies.

Please note that if a workshop is sold out a sold out sign will appear on the listing and you will be unable to book in. If a workshop does not have the number or spots that you require, a note will pop up saying 'out of stock'.

LUNCH
There are food options in walking distance at Benowa Gardens Shopping Centre and a fridge/microwave on site if you'd prefer to bring your own.

PARKING
You can park in the carpark onsite or in the surrounding streets next to the venue. 

Materials list

Location:

Sculptors Society, 173 Ashmore Rd, Benowa 4217

Book online

$995 per person

Meet the Teach

Heidi Willis

Australian born, Heidi Willis is an entirely self-taught Natural History watercolour artist. Her work intricately illustrates our native and exotic plants, flowers, fruits and seed capsules, whilst her powerful & distinctive portraits of our spectacular bird life offers viewers an insight into the world as she experiences it. Painting full-time since 2003, Heidi quickly established herself as one of Australia’s emerging artistic talents. Her reputation as a leading natural history, wildlife and botanical artist is well established and her meticulous and intricate studies of botany and birds can be found in significant public and private collections around the world.

Heidi’s work has featured in prominent national and international exhibitions over her career. Highlights include The Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize six times to date, winning a Highly Commended award in the Works on Paper section in 2014 resulting in her work going on tour with the prize winning entries. Her major work St Vincent’s Amazons and Cannonball Tree has just been selected as a finalist again for the 2016 exhibition. The Waterhouse Natural History Art Prize is one of Australia’s most prestigious and richest art competitions held by the South Australian Natural History Museum. Several of her works have been showcased as a finalist at the Focus On Nature exhibitions, a leading international Natural History Art Prize held in the New York State Museum. Her work has also featured and won awards in both Botanica and The Margaret Flockton Award, hosted by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney.

Her work is held in the permanent collection at the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation PA, USA and her work has also been included in the highly regarded Shirley Sherwood Collection. Her work has also been featured in several publications, most significantly Better Homes and Gardens Magazine, Craft Arts Magazine, Colophon, SA Life, International Artist Magazine and Artist’s Palette Magazine multiple times over, with her work featured on the front cover of Artist’s Palette issue 123. In 2015 she was taken on by Australian Geographic as a freelance botanical illustrator where her work features in the Nature Watch section of the magazine.

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