In the 1850s, John Ruskin - a writer, artist and social reformer, saw clouds of pollution gathering over England, not only in the skies, but in the spirit of a nation reshaped by industry. If the first wave endangered the dignity of craftsmanship, our age faces a deeper loss: the erosion of imagination itself.

Drawing on Ruskin, Coleridge and Zen influences, this talk explores what it means to preserve the “primary imagination” in a world of machines, the capacity to see into the heart of experience, to perceive with depth, and to keep alive the art spirit.

In this talk, we trace the artistic currents that flowed from the Romantics to the Impressionists and beyond, shaping not only European art but also the emerging Australian landscape tradition. We will explore how Turner’s luminous storms and Monet’s first Impression shared an eye for fleeting light, and how this spirit of immediacy transformed into new modes of seeing.

By placing these painters in dialogue with their contemporaries, we will see how each generation responded to what came before, carrying ideas of atmosphere and color across continents. The talk also considers how these movements found resonance in Australian painting of the 19th century, where artists absorbed and reinterpreted European influences to describe the Australian landscape.

Over the past two centuries, landscape painting in Australia has carried the dual burden of balancing Australian Realities with its European inheritance. From John Glover’s romanticised visions of a strange and luminous new world, to the earthy realism of the Heidelberg School, and the impressionistic poetics of Roberts, McCubbin and Streeton, each generation of artists has wrestled with how to see, depict and belong to this vast continent.

In this talk, we will explore how landscape painting evolved in response to both European traditions and the unique qualities of Australian light, space and scale. We will trace the arc from colonial interpretations to the golden age of Australian Impressionism and beyond, asking how our visual language of landscape has changed over time.

If sky is the eyes of a landscape painting, then light is the soul. In this talk, I explore how watercolor, with its transparency and subtlety, is uniquely suited to capture both. We will consider the ways artists have studied and rendered light across history and how subtle washes, layering and restraint can evoke space more powerfully than detail alone.

With examples drawn from my own practice, I will share approaches to painting and invite participants to see beyond objects into the air and light that surround them, discovering depth not only in landscapes, but in the act of looking itself.

Color touches us before form or line ever does. In this talk, I explore how color has been understood and handled across painting, photography and film.

From the subtleties of seasonal light to the bold choices of masters, we will look at color as something to be studied, mixed and used, but also something that carries memory, emotion and mood.

Along the way, I’ll share practical exercises and reflections from my own practice, inviting participants to not just see and use color, but to experience it as an essential language that connects us to nature and to one another.

In watercolor, skies and clouds offer both a challenge and an opportunity: they demand spontaneity, looseness and trust in the medium and our ability to be bold.

In this talk, I will explore how artists across time have approached the skies, not as backgrounds, but as living subjects. Together, we will look at how subtle tonal shifts, washes and negative space can create atmosphere and emotion. From storm fronts to dawn mists, the sky teaches us how to paint with humility, at best facilitate the outcome, be a keen observer the whole time so we may let watercolor paint itself.

In this talk, we will explore how to look at mountains, how to recognize their essential architecture, their perpetual motion and their power to both humble and uplift.

Drawing on the traditions of landscape painters who first captured their drama and reverence, we’ll consider how these lessons can be applied to the high cliffs, deep valleys and sweeping ranges of Fiordland and the Southern Alps. And through painting, we will ask how the artist might translate this immensity through bold mark-making thus turning awe into art.

“Our imaginations may be awed when we look at the mountains as monuments of the slow working of stupendous forces of nature through countless millenniums.” (Leslie Stephen, 1871)