The Seven Friedwart Series  or School Sketches complement the Nine Training Sketches, the definitive foundation of Steiner’s new impulse for the Arts. Given as ‘picture seeds’ to the teachers of the Friedwart Waldorf School as a training path for them as well as the upper school students. They provide a deeply spiritual experience and are an ideal companion for the soul in the lead up to Advent.

This fortnightly online course explores Rudolf Steiner’s approach to painting through his motifs and his understanding of how the formative forces that shape and move the world around us are also at work deep in our souls.

What will we do?

Starting with sunrise, these sketches take us on an imaginative journey from sunrise in nature to sunrise in the human soul, culminating in the archetypal motif of ‘mother and child’. We work with each sketch creatively yet with careful attention to the forces they embody, first in pastel or wet-on-wet painting, then in watercolour veil painting to create a wonderful series of heavenly and earthly imaginations.

Medium is wet-on-dry veiling but wet-on-wet or pastels also possible if you prefer. However, any technical demonstrations will be limited to veil painting.

Who is it for?

• For Steiner teachers, artists, art therapists and art students seeking to understand how the formative forces work in Nature and Human.
• For anyone interested in the core anthroposophic approach to art, colour and painting. 
• Beginners welcome, but some watercolour painting experience desirable. If preferred, you may choose to use soft pastels but I do not demonstrate this technique.

This course is a core course of the Art as a Path of Schooling for the Soul training

When is it?

3pm-5pm Saturdays AEST, 5 September – 28 November 2026 (please note: Daylight Savings begins in Australia on 4 October, meaning time changes for international participants).

Seven two-hour fortnightly sessions. Participants are expected to do complete exercises and homework between classes.

Cost

$300 AUD for new participants
$280 AUD for ongoing participants
$300 AUD for PD certificate (75% participation required, including posting photos of your paintings on padlet)

benefits of a live class over renting the videos

It may seem more convenient to do a course by video only over live attendance, but it can actually be more challenging: You are not carried by the group, you cannot ask questions, and you do not get individual feedback on your work or get to share in the experience.

But more importantly, when you paint with others, at the same time as them, even though it is in a virtual environment, you are creating etheric substance for the community. Think of it as a group of people coming together with the specific intention to bring something into the world that benefits both ourselves yet also puts positive, creative forces into the world.

And we create within a divine-spiritual community. Divine beings look over our shoulders; we create in their company and in the company of like-minded others.The gift is in the giving, in the doing, as much as in the product.

So I encourage you, if your time zone permits, to gift us with your presence!

Video recordings included in the fee, available for three months.

How to join the Course

The payment options, Zoom link, a list of materials and suggested readings will be sent to you after booking.

For more information

Feature image: New Life (pastel) © Fiona Campbell