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Welcome to Bienarté and our friendly team.

Discover the artist within you. In small, inspirational and carefully structured classes.

Every single person has the ability to create art and under the guidance of a skilled and attentive teacher, your talent can flourish.

Master Artist Marcel Desbiens has years of experience teaching students to find their own artistic voice and to gain and strengthen their technical skills. Hear what past and current students say about us.

Learn from award-winning local, interstate and international guest artists who offer courses and workshops for all skill levels in Oil colours, Acrylic, Watercolour, Drawing and Pastels in various specialty subjects. We also offer private lessons for intensive training in any technical area you need.

And all this, in the comfort of our purpose-built air-conditioned art studios.

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ANNOUNCEMENTS

Having already nurtured the development of over 15,000 new artists, Bienarté is offering a series of
Life Drawing Workshops throughout 2024.

Starting Soon

      • Contemporary Natives in Watercolour on Clayboard | Libby Derham

        About the workshop

        Day 1: Come and explore the wonderful qualities of watercolour, mark-making and ink. 
        Be inspired by beautiful natives such as Banksias and paint from life with award winning artist, Libby Derham. 
        Working with artist-quality materials and the rich colours of Daniel Smith paints, you will learn skills to loosen up representational and expressive watercolour painting on paper. 
        Day 1 will build a collection of marks and sketches, developing you looser style, in preparation for Day 2.

        Day 2: After building the foundation and familiarity of the subject and looser painting style on Day 1, Day 2 teaches skills of selection and composition from preparatory work, identifying and building of tone and working on dual paintings. 
        You will step across from smooth paper substrates to the ultrasmooth surface of Clayboard, learning new possibilities of this intriguing material.

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        Who is this workshop suitable for?

        Suitable for absolute beginners, but people with some previous experience in watercolour will also get a lot out of working with Clayboard.

        What do I need to bring?

        Ampersand Claybord 8" x 8" Your choice of thickness. 

        Please bring a collection of fresh or dry flowers, natives or plant material to draw from.
        HB or 2B pencil

        Fabriano Studio Watercolour pad (25% cotton)- 300 gsm Smooth (hot press)- White A3

        Paper towel, masking tape (Bear 24mm x 50m washi from Bunnings is good)

        You are welcome to bring some Banksias and Natives to the workshop

        Libby will supply:
        Paints - made up palettes of Daniel Smith Watercolours @ $10 for 2 days workshop per student 
        Colours Included:  Buff Titanium, Hansa Yellow Medium, Quinacridone Gold, Pyrrol Scarlet, Pyrrol Crimson, Quinacridone Rose, Imperial Purple, Ultramarine, Cerulean Blue Chromium, Phthalo Blue (Green Shade), Phthalo Green (Blue Shade), Undersea Green, Sap Green, Yellow Ochre, Goethite (Brown Ochre), Burnt Sienna, Tiger's Eye, Indian Red, Raw Umber, Payne's Gray
        Sticks 
        Art Spectrum Ink - in small dropper bottles 
        Plastic pipettes

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        Bienarté will supply:
        Mop brushes - large for washes, small for detail 
        Spray bottles of water 
        Waterpots
        Protection for tables 
        A3 Clipboards 

        Please bring your lunch and snacks or you can purchase from cafes close by. We do have a fridge at the studio for your convenience.

        What else is provided?

        • Tea, coffee and biscuits (please bring your own cup)
        • A friendly, supportive and encouraging learning environment
        • Connection to the Bienarté art community

        About the Tutor

        An award-winning artist, Libby is a fourth-generation water-colourist, passionate at pushing the medium into the contemporary space. She won the Annie Tan Memorial Watercolour Award - Queensland Regional Art Awards (2021) and has been a finalist in multiple local and national awards including Splash: McClelland Contemporary Watercolour Award (2021), QRAA (2020), Local Artist Local Content (2023/2022/2021/2020) and Du Rietz Art Awards (2021/2020).

        Useful Information

        For Visitors FAQs

      • Floral Bouquet in Watercolour for Beginners | Rachael King

        About this workshop

        Join Brisbane artist Rachael King for 2 hours of fun painting a colourful floral bouquet in watercolour.

        Rachael will take you through the steps to creating your own masterpiece!  this will be a fun session where you will create the impression of a floral bouquet - no experience is necessary as this is all about having fun and making marks with watercolour! 

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        Who is this workshop suitable for?

        Everyone is welcome! No experience necessary.

        What do I need to bring?

        Use of all materials will be available.

        What is provided?

        • Tea/coffee will be provided, but please bring your own cup
        • A friendly, supportive and encouraging learning environment
        • Connection to the Bienarté art community

        About the tutor

        Rachael King is a Brisbane Surface Pattern Designer and Author of Pattern Pulse. Rachael uses analogue and digital techniques to bring her watercolour artwork into designs that are licensed to companies such Spotlight, Annabel Trends and John Sands Greeting Cards.

        Useful Information

        For Visitors FAQs

      • Keep Creating - A Focus on Portraits, Landscapes or Still Life | Daniel Butterworth

        Daniel Butterworth is a professional Australian artist with a highly successful career spanning over twenty years. He has exhibited extensively and won numerous awards.
        Daniel has been a Finalist in the Doug Moran Prize and Archibald Prize
        Take this unique opportunity to learn a range of new techniques and gain insight into the loose painterly approach with Daniel.

        In this engaging two-day workshop, Daniel will share with you his tips on materials, mediums, scale and light.
        Through demonstrations and one-on-one feedback, Daniel will guide you as you create the work of your choice - landscape, portrait or still life - on cardboard!

        What will I learn?

        In this weekend workshop, you will discover the power of composition and the effect it can have on a work. Daniel will show you how to reflect on your subject and look at ways of amplifying the use of light.
        You will develop at least one painting, more strikingly vital and direct than you have produced before!

        Throughout the workshop, you will be encouraged to draw on your own creative voice, with a final critique at the end of the day.

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        Who is this workshop suitable for?

        This workshop is suitable for beginners through to experienced.

        What do I need to bring?

        • At least three images of either the landscapes, or portraits or still life that you would like to paint - ideally on an ipad, tablet or phone
        • 4B and 2B grey lead perncils
        • Black marker
        • Charcoal (willow or compressed)
        • 3 sheets of A1 paper
        • 3 pieces of cardboard in varied sizes. This could be recycled packing cardboard - the bigger the better as we can cut it down on the day. White goods suppliers have great cardboard as well as motorcycle shops
        • Acrylic paint in warm primary colours and in black and white
        • Palette
        • Water tub
        • Brushes: Numbers 1 to 14 (preferably synthetic) and 11inch flat (synthetic).

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        What will be provided?

        • Tea, coffee and biscuits (bring your own cup)
        • A friendly, supportive and encouraging learning environment
        • Connection to the Bienarté art community

        Useful Information

        For Visitors FAQs

      • Relax with Watercolour | Paint and Sip

        Add colour to your day or night with this unique paint and sip style watercolour session, in which you supply your drink of choice and we supply the rest! We have tea and coffee on-site for the drivers! This casual, relaxed class is perfect for absolute beginners, as no prior painting experience is needed.

        During the session, you’ll have the opportunity to experiment with watercolour paints in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere while creating your own unique framed artwork to take home with you. 

        What will I learn?

        You will learn the basics of painting in watercolour. You will be guided with a demonstration of painting in watercolour. You will have a selection of different scenes to paint on the night. You can follow a template to get you started or you can be as creative as you wish!

        Who is this event suitable for?

        Anyone who wants to have fun experimenting with watercolours. If you’ve never painted before, this is the perfect, relaxed opportunity to give it a try.

        What do I need to bring?

        Whatever you would like to sip while you paint. You are welcome to bring your own nibbles.

        What is provided?

        • all painting equipment, including watercolour paints and high-quality watercolour paper
        • disposable glassware
        • brushes and carbon paper
        • unique, custom-designed stencils to work from
        • an A5 frame to take home to frame your finished work of art

        What students say

        5* We had such a lovely girls night and even though none of us has ever painted in watercolours before, we had a lovely instructor and a heap of stencils to use before we were confident enough to do some freestyling. -Meghan-

        5* The class was very well run with good instruction and plenty of help if needed. All the necessary equipment was provided and all 3 teachers were friendly and encouraging. Would definitely do another class - we had a lot of fun! -Alex-

        Photos from previous Paint & Sip Events {image name:"paint and sip"}

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Marcel Desbiens | Master Artist | Principal Tutor