Layers of Expression- Mixed media mark making and painting Term 4 2026

 

Course Outline:

● Duration: 9 weeks (2 hours per weekly session)

● Skill Level: All levels

● Core Focus: The creative process and building your own unique visual language through mixed media. This is a welcoming supportive hands-on creativity laboratory, designed to dismantle creative blocks, explore what resonates, and learn a range of mixed media techniques, including building texture, layering, combining wet and dry mediums, and structural composition.

 

In this course, you are invited to unplug, let loose, make marks, sling paint, learn and create! Whether you are new to art or an established artist looking to shift out of a creative rut, this course is for you. As well as your own unique creations, you will come away with new skills that can help elevate your mixed media art and enrich your creative practice.

 

You will work with a range of media including ink, charcoal, pencil, pastel, collage and paint. Each class will have a theme, and be structured to explore an aspect of mixed media painting. There will be prompts to get you started, demonstrations and plenty of tips, techniques and tools to try.

 

The goal of this class is to shift away from expectations and perfectionism, and shift towards curiosity, experimentation, and creating art more freely. This class is not about making perfectly rendered end products, rather, it focuses on the creative process and being open to discoveries - think gestural, expressive, states of flow and learning through doing.

  

Brighid Jamieson

 

This class is taught by Brighid Jamieson who leads Rata’s Adult Visual Art Programme. Brighid wholeheartedly believes that everyone is creative and that nurturing our creativity is part of the ‘secret sauce’ to life. She delights in watching people flourish as they build their creative confidence and master new skills through making art.

 

Brighid has been making art for as long as she can remember (starting early, with the living room walls and her crayons…!) Today, she is an accomplished mixed-media artist working primarily with charcoal, collage, ink and paint. Brighid’s work has been exhibited in 20 galleries and public shows, and her art can be found in selected stores around NZ.

 

As a registered psychologist with a background in community development, Brighid’s art explores themes of connection. Often with a splash of whimsy, her pieces delve into our sometimes complicated relationships with ourselves, one another, and the world we share.

 

Creative Workshops & Classes

Basic materials provided. Classes blend practical demonstrations, group guidance, and individual support, helping you build confidence and explore your unique artistic voice.