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Higgs. Tutor of Willoughby Arts Centre

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Chrissie Ianssen is an award winning visual arts professional with over ten years of training under her belt. She spent two years studying classical painting and drawing at the Julian Ashton Art School, winning their Wenda and Richard Ashton Prize for Distinction. She was awarded a Bachelor degree in visual arts with first class honours from the Australian National University, and her Masters (supported by a scholarship) from the Sydney College of the Arts in 2008.

Chrissie has solid experience in workshop delivery and teaching, project delivery, community engagement within the arts, and as a practising artist in her own right, after years of freelance creative production and studio practice.

She has taught children, designed and delivered programs to students within the university environment, facilitated digital camera, photoshop and zine making workshops in the Barkindji Community of Willcannia and Broken Hill, and designed and delivered zine making workshops to youths within Cobham Juvenile Justice Centre. Chrissie has also worked for Kaldor Projects in delivering workshops. In addition, she has produced large-scale community projects, such as New Neighbours, which was a collaborative, democratic space in Parramatta, working alongside refugees.

Chrissie was the recipient of the Parramatta Artists' Fellowship in 2010. She won the commission from Lane Cove Council to design the street furniture now featured throughout the main plaza. She was also commissioned by Blacktown City Council to create and install a large suspended public artwork in the city centre in 2013.

phone 0431 439 222
email cj.ianssen@gmail.com


Q & A with Chrissie Ianssen (February 2017)

1. What do you know about the Workshop Arts Centre?
My mother taught here during the 1970’s, when I was about 4. I used to come along to classes, but was able to have the run of the centre – and have great memories of making all sorts of artworks in the print and ceramics studio. I still have my first firing – a clay donkey.

For some time, I have wanted to share the Renaissance painting technique taught to me by artist Lukas Kandel. I would prefer to share with people who have a little experience in painting, ie in colour matching and mixing colour, or at least who feel confident to dive in! The Willoughby Workshop art centre caters to people with a wide range of experience, and so I thought it would be a great place for the workshop.

2. What can people expect when they attend your workshop?
Plenty of discussion and sharing of knowledge around renaissance painting and history! The first time I used this technique, I made a copy of Van Eyck’s Arnolfini Wedding, partly because I was fascinated with its ambiguous back-story, and partly because I have always found Van Eyck’s depiction of faces quite strange and wanted to see whether I could understand how he saw that, through my rendition of his vision.

The workshop will be very hands on. We’ll cook rabbit skin glue and whiting to make our gesso painting surface, and there will be elbow grease involved, as we’ll sand our dried surfaces down to a lovely smooth finish. Dust masks are imperative!

3. What currently inspires your work?
At the moment, my work feels multitudinous. I somehow always manage to straddle several strands of interests, and hope to bring them together one day. How does one merge hard edge, abstract painting with slow colour build up and layering, in the depiction of space on a flat surface? There are direct links in my mind! Conceptually I have always been fascinated by vernacular architecture in Sydney, and how Sydney homes show traces of migration from other places.

4. Have you any mentors or teachers that have influenced your practice?
Lukas Kandel, a Czech painter, taught me the technique I’ll share at the Easter workshop. His work focuses on the labour intensive surface preparation and thin layering of colour that we’ll get a taster of.

But I also have been influenced by the work of Josef Albers, the Bauhaus teacher and colourist. His work taught me that colour cannot exist on its own, that all colours are relative to everything around them. His work also made me realize that hard edge abstraction is closely tied to observation of the world around us, and directly represents our visual world.

5. Are there any exhibitions that you would encourage people to visit?
The Penrith regional Gallery is putting on an exhibition of Australian abstraction in March, titled Visions of Utopia, and featuring the works of Australian abstractionists. I will be supporting the exhibition with a live painting performance, for three days, at the entrance of the gallery, on the 17th, 18th and 19th of March. www.penrithregionalgallery.org

6. What is the one tool/supply that you can’t leave home without?
I always carry a notebook and pen, and surprise surprise, my phone. Google is great for on the run research!

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Enrich your child’s creative mind. JimJam Studios bring their wealth of knowledge in early childhood education, musical inspiration, crafty goodness and fun to the Workshop Arts Centre.

JimJam Studios provide fun yet developmentally appropriate music and movement classes for children from newborn to the age of 7 and creative arts courses for children and their families. The studio is located in Hornsby on Sydney’s upper North Shore and has been a thriving business for early childhood music education since 2005. Introducing a child to music early in their life is one of the greatest gifts a parent can give and JimJam Studios provide the inspiration and tools to develop foundations of learning in a child’s musical journey.

Commencing in 2016, in addition to teaching internationally renowned Kindermusik curriculum, JimJam Studios offer singing, drama, art, ukulele and yoga, with special events about parenting, childhood health and wellbeing and family life catering to parents in the North Shore community. JimJam Studios has been awarded the prestigious ‘Maestro’ status in 2012 through 2016 – this is awarded to the top 5% Kindermusik studios worldwide. In 2014 they reached ‘Conductors Circle’ status and celebrated being the 2nd largest Kindermusik studio in Australia.

website jimjammusic.com.au

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Karyn Johnson. Tutor of Willoughby Arts Centre

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Roslyn has studied at the National Art School, Sydney, Slade School of Fine Art, London and Tokyo National University of Fine Art with specialisation in Printmaking. With more than thirty years experience as an educator internationally, Roslyn specialises in relief printing and the contemporary application of Traditional Japanese Woodblock methods of water base printmaking.

Roslyn is represented in international and Australian collections including the Art Gallery of NSW, Australian National Gallery and private collections throughout the world.

phone 9653 3471
email rozkean@bigpond.com

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Paul Kemp has studied visual art at St George Technical College, East Sydney Technical College (National Art School) and has a Bachelor of Arts (Visual Art) from the University of Newcastle. He is a practicing artist working in his open studio at the Headland Park Art Precinct, Mosman. Paul has exhibited in private and public galleries for 34years and has taught adult art classes for 20years; including 11 years as a full-time drawing/painting teacher with various institutes of TAFE.

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Bridget Kennedy completed an Advanced Diploma in Jewellery and Object Design in 2005. In 2008 she co-founded Studio 20/17, a contemporary jewellery gallery and workshop based in Waterloo, Sydney and has taught part time both at various community colleges and privately. She has been a finalist in the National Contemporary Jewellery award, was awarded first prize in Graduate Metal X, and has won both the emerging and established categories of the JMGA-NSW Profile Award. She has held numerous solo exhibitions and participated in group shows both nationally and internationally. In 2015 she completed a Masters in Studio Art at Sydney College of the Arts. The use of diverse, non-precious and organic materials with traditionally precious materials in her exhibition work continues an ongoing enquiry into environmental fragility, impermanence, choice and value.

website bridgetkennedy.com.au

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Regina Krawets. Tutor of Willoughby Arts Centre

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He is primarily a painter, and has been teaching painting and drawing for twenty five years.

He has been exhibiting for thirty five years, in regional galleries, commercial galleries in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, and State galleries.

His work is a response to the country on and around his farm at Walcha, in northern NSW.

website King Street Gallery

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Brandt Lewis is an exhibiting artist with a Master of Arts from COFA (Drawing) and post-graduate qualifications in painting and teaching. He has had 18 solo and 75 group exhibitions.

Brandt is a very experienced teacher - having taught for over 30 years at institutions including TAFE, NIDA, The National Art School (NAS), Willoughby Arts Centre, University of Sydney, and other public and private art schools.

He has been a selected finalist in several prestigious art awards including the Doug Moran Portrait Prize, Blacktown City Art Prize, Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, Glebe Art Prize, Lane Cove Art Award and Muswellbrook Art Prize.

Phone 9341 7483
Email