Discover the power of drawing as a tool for thinking, storytelling and creative exploration in this two-day, in-person drawing intensive with Juan Ford and Jodie Di Natale. Built for serious making, this workshop gives you the chance to slow down, work at scale, and strengthen your relationship with mark making—supported by artists who know how to guide process, build confidence and push practice forward.
Each day follows a clear studio structure with artist demonstrations, guided exercises and generous time to make, refine and reflect. You’ll be surrounded by colleagues and fellow educators, sharing ideas and momentum in a supportive space where experimentation is encouraged and perfection isn’t the point. You’ll leave with renewed creative energy, practical studio habits, and adaptable strategies you can take straight back into your own work and translate into meaningful classroom experiences.
Juan Ford
Artist Juan Ford will conduct a workshop designed to test limits of scale, imagination and mark making . Grounded in observational study, participants will respond to the idea of The Monolith, creating works that function best on a large format, and executed fearlessly. Think along the lines of massive, brutal, imposing, majesterial or colossal drawings, but generated from everyday, simple and accessible beginnings.
Juan Ford’s practice explores humanity’s fraught relationship with the natural environment, driven by the idea that we treat wilderness as something separate from ourselves. This “othering” of the natural processes we are part of underpins his paintings and installations. Ford received a Master of Art from RMIT University (2001) and has been commissioned by major institutions including the Australian War Memorial (2018) and the National Gallery of Victoria (Melbourne Now, 2013/14). He has exhibited widely in Australia and internationally, with solo exhibitions including Venice (2017) and Hong Kong (2019), and has participated in significant group exhibitions and biennales, alongside international awards and residencies.
Jodie Di Natale
Artist Jodie Di Natale will run a one-day drawing workshop for teachers using birds as the starting point. Participants will explore drawing materials and processes, working with scale, layering and tonal mark-making in a supportive studio environment with time to experiment and refine under Jodie’s guidance.
Jodie Di Natale is a figurative artist whose large-scale psychological drawings and paintings examine bodies wrapped in authoritarian attire and the synthetic skins of protective suits. Informed by people working in physically and psychologically demanding environments, her work explores endurance, vulnerability and the fragile tension between “armour” and the agent within.
