I am conducting a two day plein-air oil painting workshop at Castlemaine Botanical Gardens on Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 March 2025.

 

 

The theme of this workshop is  Colour. 

 

 

I have of late made oil paintings on site at the gardens and which feature the lake. While my work, as always, is grounded in a response to what I see, my use of colour could not be described as naturalistic. Much of the colour I employ is an invention, and the emphasis I put on reflections in the lake is an exaggeration.

 

 

This workshop will show you how to use colour in an expressive and bold way so as to convey vitality, beauty and delight (in keeping with this approach I am encouraging students to work on a larger size canvas than you mostly see in plein-air workshops). Hand in hand with colour will be a focus on patterning. But this is not flat, abstract painting - for we shall also endeavour to convey light and space. This duality of the decorative and distance can be associated with Modernism.

 

 

The workshop runs for two days, but if you want to make it just the one day, that is fine. You can opt to complete a painting each day, or the one painting over two days (my usual practise with my larger works).

 

The cost for the 4 hour workshop is $220 ($110 for one day). 

 

 

To book please email me: info@markdober.com

Payment will be sought once the workshop is confirmed.

 

 

(Note: Our painitng site at the lake edge offers good shade. If there is rain the Teahouse veranda in the gardens provides suitable cover)

 

 

Image: my painting in the 2025 Len Fox Painting Award at Castlemaine Art Museum