What is it about?

This two-year part-time training offers a unique approach to painting and drawing, where artistic practice becomes a schooling process for the soul, using colour, form and space.

The course promotes art as a spiritual practice using an open-ended research process that blends practice and theory, art and Anthroposophy with online classes, lectures, discussion and contemplation, technical guidance, individual consultations and self-directed learning. Through this approach, we create a studio environment that combines the academy with art school, accessible to all, because it is online.

A two-fold purpose

• Artistic practice: The schooling employs the anthroposophic approach to art but encourages students to develop their own unique style of expression rather than adhering to the approach of a particular school or style.
  
• Spiritual practice: The schooling offers a research-based approach to understanding Anthroposophy, where ‘research’ means being inquiry-minded, asking questions of yourself and of the process. Being comfortable with uncertainty is essential in any inner schooling path. We ask why we are doing this and effect it has on us, as much as how to do it and what we’ve created.

Understanding comes through the experiential rather than purely theoretical. This means that, rather than a study of texts followed by an illustrative artistic exercise, the study is the artistic exercise and the texts accompany this process.

This course starts you on a path of inner work through creative practice.

About the schooling

Rudolf Steiner’s extensive portfolio of training sketches, motifs and lectures form the foundation of this training but other approaches and texts are also used.

From this starting point, the schooling can provide the fundamentals of an anthroposophic painting training in the context of Spiritual Science, using the phenomenological way of seeing the world. These fundamentals then provide a sound basis for developing a lifelong artistic practice that can support your spiritual self.

Our aim is to use Steiner’s works as a starting point, not an ending point.

Watercolour is the primary medium, but other media, including pastels, charcoal, gouache, are used in specific courses or according to participants’ choice.

The schooling package is a flexible combination of:

• six courses (three a year over two years), both foundational and advanced.
• six lecture webinars (over two years)
• five workshop intensives (two a year)
• individual project
• individual consultations
• self-directed artistic work

Who is the SChooling for?

• Students of Anthroposophy interested in an creative and experiential path to inner work, meditation and understanding Spiritual Science.
  
• Artists trained at conventional art schools who wish to learn about the anthroposophic approach to art.

• Waldorf (Steiner) teachers and therapists who wish to extend their professional practice by deepening their understanding of the anthroposophic impulse in art.

Course List

Foundational Courses

Learning the watercolour techniques
Learning the drawing techniques
Understanding Goethe’s Theory of Colour
Introducing Rudolf Steiner’s Training Sketches for the Painter
Developing inner work practice using verses and meditations

Advanced COURSES & masterclasses

Exploring Rudolf Steiner’s approach to colour, evolution and the soul life
Further work on the Training Sketches
Working with composition and advanced painting techniques
Building the inner work with textual studies
Individual projects

SPECIAL theme workshops

Introducing Goethean Phenomenology and nature contemplation
Dedicated drawing workshops
Therapeutic intensives for soul refreshement

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

A schooling process demands active participation from participants.

What does active participation mean:

• live attendance, with video on if possible
• reviewing the class content using the recordings
• attending lectures, reviews and study groups
• post photos of work in progress with notations on the digital community board (Padlet)
• self-managed work on the exercises at home
• engaging in questioning, reflection and inquiry.
• engaging with other participants in the form of review, reflection, and general sharing.
• There is Padlet and a group chat on Signal for participants to interact with each other.

Practical work: Courses are primarily on Saturday and Wednesday AEST in the Foundation courses and Friday afternoons AEST in the Advanced courses.
Readings and reflections: There are selected readings for the course for the year but also for individual courses. Discussion of these texts takes place during class.
Total hours: Total of approximately 110 hrs contact hours + 400-600 hrs of self-managed creative work at home over two years. 75% live attendance required.

The full course requirements are listed in the Course Outline, available after registration. The outline includes a list of recommended materials and readings.

Unsure about the commitment or live attendance?

If you are unsure about committing yourself immediately or would prefer to work at your own pace with the videos only, I recommend you take the individual courses within the Schooling program. Each course is a little world of colour and insights in itself!

Painted Space Studio is based in Australia and all courses and workshop times are given in AEST.

Next intake: January-February 2026

Course completion

• A diploma is awarded at the full completion of the course if all course requirements are met.
• Professional development certificates are also available for individual courses and the training when the diploma requirements cannot be met.
• 75% attendance required for diploma or certificate.

This training is an initiative of the Visual Arts Section