73 Esplanade, Altona — corner of Millers Rd
Golden hour on the bay, most Saturdays.
Weekend workshops in watercolour, oil, charcoal and pastel, taught from a working studio on Port Phillip Bay. Same light he's been painting for twenty years — you'll be looking at it too.
That sunset sets the mood — this is the real view, photographed from the Esplanade a few doors down from the studio. Same bay, most evenings.
Oils workshop — David's studio, Altona
What a Saturday here looks like
Eight easels, borrowed light off the bay, and a wall of finished paintings watching you work. Nobody's precious about it — you'll compare washes with the person next to you before you've dried your brush.
David teaches the way he learned: watching people who were further along, in rooms that smelled like turps and instant coffee, on the other side of the world and around the corner from home. Small groups, mixed levels, every medium he paints in himself.
The bit that never makes the brochure
Same brush, same can, every week
No screens in the room — just hands, bristles and whatever's left in the tin.
Keep scrolling
Every portrait starts the same way — block in the tones. Then the colour arrives.
Off the studio wall
Work from the room, not a stock library
Every piece below has hung in the Altona studio or come out of a workshop sketchbook. Nothing staged for a website.
Next available session
Reserve an easel
Pick a medium. Sessions are small on purpose — once the easels are gone, they're gone until next weekend.
This picker illustrates how availability could work online — live scheduling still runs through David directly. Selecting an easel doesn't book it yet.
Twenty-odd years of weekend workshops
David didn't plan on teaching. He just never stopped studying.
It started with weekends in the UK in 2001, chasing art workshops around the country between shifts at work. Back in Australia he kept doing it — Victoria, NSW, then further: Florence, the USA, a portrait studio in London built entirely around the old "Sight Size" method. He still paints in watercolour, oil, acrylic, charcoal, pastel and ink, because he never picked a favourite.
"I aim to help people see the world the way an artist sees it — then get out of the way of their own style."
- WatercolourJoseph Zbukvic, Alvaro Castagnet, Ron Ranson
- OilJohn Wilson, Warwick Fuller, Colly Whisson
- PortraitureNicholas Beer studio, London — Sight Size
- Academic studyMichelangelo Academy of Art, Florence
- US workshopsSusan Lyon, Scott Burdick