Join artist Ben Howe, winner of the 2024 Richard Lester Prize for Portraiture for his oil painting Cartagena Library (2023), exhibiting with The Lester Prize Regional Tour at the Cannery Arts Centre 6 June - 20 July, in this three hour workshop.

Participants will explore a focused and disciplined approach to oil painting using a limited grayscale palette. emphasising tone over colour and restraint over excess, the goal is to achieve a striking level of realism without relying on fine detail or heavy blending. You'll learn to slow down your process - spending more time observing and considering each brushstroke before it’s made. This method encourages intentionality, where every mark serves a purpose in describing form, volume, and character.

Rather than aiming for polished smoothness, we’ll embrace the power of bold, essential marks to capture the sculptural qualities of the human face. The result can be a more immediate and expressive likeness - one that communicates essence rather than perfection. Ideal for artists looking to deepen their observational skills and loosen their technique, this workshop is a thoughtful, challenging, and rewarding dive into the fundamentals of tone, form, and expressive economy in portraiture. All materials supplied

$10 per person - spaces limited and bookings essential

This workshop is subsidised with sponsorship from the Mt Burdett Foundation and the Esperance Ag Fund, a fund of the Fremantle Foundation.