Kerrie sketching models

Kerrie Lester: Off the wharf

This course offers a chance to work with one of Australia’s best known contemporary artists and enjoy her enthusiastic embrace of the joy of painting. During the week, Kerrie works with each person to help them develop their own personal style and show new possibilities. She encourages every student to choose a subject and then interpret it in their own way. Her class is not about painting a scene to look like a photograph; it’s about pushing the boundaries and understanding their own vision. Guiding her students to find that style means showing them how to use paint, which brushes to use, what grounds to apply – each person has different preferences which build up to make their own style. She gives guidance as to the suitability of mediums to each individual’s work. Medium can be used instead of water to enhance the paint and give an effect similar to oil paint.

Kerrie puts huge emphasis on having fun whilst doing it – painting should be a joyful experience full of new directions and ideas.  During the week, she works mostly within the parameters of the local environment and its surroundings, expanding individual approaches and being inspired by the surrounds – visiting the harbour, going down to the market, painting local people. She will be helping you develop work on canvas paper or board.

Kerrie Lester: Beach run

Kerrie has run three courses at Daku and this will be her fourth. Her previous students all came away with a new perspective on painting – and a lot of completed work to take home too. Have a look at the Daku blog to read an account of her 2012 retreat.

We will be working in acrylics on canvas, canvas board or paper. A full materials list will be supplied.

Price:

AUD $1800 twin share

Single supplement: $350
Non-painting partners: $850

Program Includes

Return airport transfers from Savusavu to Daku Resort.
7 nights accommodation at Daku Resort in traditional bures with private facilities.
Breakfasts, lunches and dinners are provided.
Course fees
Lectures and excursions as indicated.
Program Excludes
Flights to Savusavu. We are happy to quote on these and book them for you if requested. Flight prices fluctuate according to demand.
Comprehensive Travel Insurance.
Optional activities not listed on the program.
Costs of a personal nature such as laundry, massages, private trips.
Meals taken in transit at the airport.

To make an enquiry, click here.

For booking, click here.

Programme  includes:
-    Course fees
-    Accommodation  for 7 nights
-    All meals at Daku Resort
-    Domestic flight Nadi – Savusavu return
-    Airport transfers
-    Excursions as listed in the programme

Program Excludes
- International flight to Nadi.
- Comprehensive Travel Insurance.
- Optional activities not listed on the program.
- Costs of a personal nature such as laundry, massages, private trips.
- Meals taken in transit at the airport.

Kerrie Lester is an icon of the Australian art world. She won the highly prestigious Mosman Art Prize in 2011, was a finalist in the 2012 Portia Geach Memorial Prize 2012 and a finalist in the Dobell drawing prize 2011 at  the Art Gallery of NSW, and has 16 Archibald finalists to her name. Her exuberant paintings are instantly recognised and widely admired. She was born in 1953 in Sydney and has lived and worked from her Mosman studio since 1989. She is renowned for her distinctive stitched canvas paintings, and instantly recognised by her witty, colourful style. Her whimsical figures with sharp outlines range from virtual stick men to fully rounded portraits, all of them about to burst out of the canvas and join in with everyday life.

Kerrie has held over 31 solo exhibitions, her first held immediately after graduating from art school. She has been represented in many important group exhibitions including the Biennale of Sydney in 1979 and Australian Perspecta in 1981 and 1985. In addition, Kerrie has been an influential educator, lecturing at COFA, the National Art School and Willoughby

Student at the easel

Workshop.

Programme
The course runs for 6 days, and includes both workshops and local excursions.

Saturday Sept 7
Fly to Savusavu. The resort is 10 minutes from the airstrip, and you will be welcomed into it with a traditional Fijian welcoming ceremony.

Sunday Sept 8
Morning workshop:  introduction to the week. Poolside lunch and coconut cutting demonstration.

Monday Sept 9
Morning workshop; lunch; afternoon workshop. In the late afternoon there will be a tapa making demonstration

Tuesday Sept 10
Morning workshop; lunch. There will be free time  in the afternoon – you can take an optional visit to the local black pearl farm (not included in course cost) or to town, visiting the geothermal hot springs, local market and shops.

Wednesday Sept 11
Morning workshop; lunch.   Afternoon boat / beach outing.

Thursday Sept 12
Morning workshop; lunch. Afternoon free time. Evening dinner in town.

Friday Sept 13
Morning workshop; lunch; afternoon workshop. Later in the afternoon we will visit a local village to see a traditional Fijian meke (dance) and then have a final dinner at Daku.

Saturday Sept 14
Leave Savusavu in the morning. Arrive Nadi 9.30, and on to international flights.