Pure Joy on a Canvas

Prepare yourself for a session of pure painting delight. This week we'll paint a wonderfully fluffy alpaca (yes, really) with a soft pink flower tucked cheekily between its teeth.

This is a playful, character-filled subject that will have you smiling from start to finish. You'll focus on capturing that gorgeously chaotic, slightly scruffy fur texture and the gentle humour in the animal's expression. A perfect piece for gift someone special, or simply keep for the little giggle it gives you every time you walk past.

Palette-Knife Magic You'll Fall in Love With

Highland cows are the most photographed farm animals on the planet for very good reason. Who can resist that magnificent flopping fringe, those long elegant horns, and those soulful staring eyes?

This week you'll paint one using rich, chunky palette-knife textures, learning how to build thick, buttery, expressive fur using tools other than brushes. The result is a wonderfully tactile, almost three-dimensional portrait that feels alive on the canvas. If you've never picked up a palette knife before, this is the week you'll genuinely wonder why you ever waited so long.

Go Wild with Every Colour in the Box

This week is all about colour — pinks, purples, turquoises, yellows, oranges — all layered and blended together into a flamingo portrait that feels more like music than painting.

You'll loosen right up, play hard with your palette, and discover how "wrong" colours can sometimes make a subject feel far more alive than accurate ones ever could. Consider it your official permission slip to be bold, brave, and expressive. The finished results are always absolutely jaw-dropping.

Drama, Texture, and Glowing Amber Eyes

Drama, texture, and atmosphere take centre stage this week with a moody, mysterious black cat portrait. You'll work with deep blacks, rust oranges, teal shadows, and electric blues. These create a richly textured background and a face that feels like it's quietly watching you from inside the canvas.

It's a proper masterclass in contrast, showing how light reveals form, and how warm and cool colours play off each other. Brooding, beautiful, and a genuine statement piece for any wall you choose to hang it on.

The Most Aussie Painting of the Term

We round out the term with arguably the most iconic Australian subject of them all — a gorgeous koala nestled on a eucalyptus branch. You'll paint textural fur, soulful expressive eyes, and a loose, dappled-light background that feels distinctly Aussie bush.

It's a beautiful chance to bring together everything you've learned across the term: layering, colour mixing, texture, brushwork, and expressive loose marks. A painting you'll be genuinely proud to sign your name to at the end of the session.

Bold Brows, Big Blooms and Buckets of Character

We finish the term with a striking portrait, all soft cream skin, dark sweeping brows and a crown of fat pink peonies. You'll build her up in thick, confident strokes, letting the paint sit proud on the canvas so those flowers feel almost sculpted. Faces can look daunting, so we'll break hers down into simple shapes you can actually place.

Then comes the fun part: rosy cheeks, a bold red lip and a pair of wildly colourful earrings. She's striking, a little bit dreamy, and a lovely piece to finish your ten weeks on.

Thick Paint and a Very Direct Stare

We open the term with an owl looking straight out of the canvas at you. You'll work almost entirely with a palette knife, laying down chunky strokes that read as feathers the moment you step back. No fiddly detail required.

Those big eyes do all the heavy lifting, and we'll help you place them. It's a bold, confident start to a term about texture.

Sand, Surf and a Sky You Can Feel

This week the texture goes on before the colour does. You'll build up a gritty, plastered surface, then paint a shoreline over the top so the foam and sand catch real light. The surface does half the work for you.

We'll show you how to keep the horizon soft while the foreground stays rough. It's a calm coastal piece with genuine depth to it.

Petals You Could Almost Pick

White flowers are the perfect excuse to load up the knife and go thick. You'll sculpt each petal in one confident stroke, leaving ridges that cast their own little shadows. Up close it's almost a relief carving.

The greens behind stay loose and scrubby so the flowers really sing. Simple subject, gorgeous result.

Wide Open Water and One Small Sail

Sometimes the quietest painting is the most striking one in the room. You'll cover most of the canvas in soft blues and greys, then place a single sailboat and let all that empty space do its work. The knife keeps the water alive.

We'll focus on getting the reflection sitting right underneath the hull. A restful class with a very grown-up finish.

Blossom That Stands Off the Canvas

This is the most three-dimensional piece of the whole term. You'll build each blossom up in thick dabs of pink and white until the branch genuinely stands proud of the surface. People will want to touch it.

We'll start with the branch and let the flowers grow out from there. Slow, absorbing and completely worth it.

A Single Flower, Full of Character

One sunflower, one canvas, and a great deal of texture. You'll sweep the petals on with the knife and pack the centre with dense, crusty paint that catches every bit of light. The quiet grey background keeps all the attention where it belongs.

We'll talk about how one slightly droopy petal makes the whole thing feel real. Perfect flowers are boring flowers.

Cheeky Face, Fearless Colour

Forget brown. This otter gets painted in purples, teals and golds against a bright turquoise background, and it works beautifully. Colour used this way makes an animal feel alive rather than merely accurate.

You'll keep the strokes chunky and flick the whiskers on last. It's the most fun class of the term.

An Aussie Icon in Every Colour Going

We're staying bold and bringing it home. You'll paint a koala using just about every colour on the palette, letting blues, pinks and greens do the job grey normally would. The fur becomes a burst of texture all around the face.

We'll keep the eyes and nose grounded so it still reads as a koala. Everything else can be as wild as you fancy.

The Quiet End of the Beach

This one is all about restraint and lovely muted colour. You'll paint a stretch of empty shoreline with dune grass in the foreground, using the edge of the knife to flick up individual blades. The sand goes on thick so it feels underfoot.

We'll keep the palette soft and sandy the whole way through. The sort of painting that looks wonderful in a hallway.

Everything You've Learned, All at Once

We finish with the biggest texture of the term. You'll build a jagged, crashing foreground of rock and spray, then set a small lighthouse against a soft misty sky. The contrast between rough and smooth is the entire point.

Every technique from the last nine weeks turns up in this one. Bring your knife and your confidence.