Josephine Truman

Resume

Josephine Truman


Country of birth –
Australia


Other countries I have lived –
England (2 years), Holland (4 years), Germany (15 months).


My qualifications –

  • 1998 – BA; Comm. (UTS)
  • 1980 – Started Dip. Fine Arts (Alexander Mackey)
  • Currently completing a Master of Music (Sydney Uni)


My achievements –

  • 2003 – Post Graduate Research Scheme (PGRS) Award (Sydney University)
  • 1993 – Live in Artists Stippendea; Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart, Germany)
  • 1985 – International Study Grant (Australia Council)
  • 1983 – Special Purpose Award (Australia Council of the Arts)


My teaching style –
I love to teach to impart skills I already have to others who are keen to learn about botanical painting and drawing. Many people feel tentative and self conscious about drawing in particular, so it is a rewarding challenge to help them overcome their fears and in many instances, surprise themselves with the results they achieve with a little guidance and encouragement.

My class is very much hands-on. The course is divided into drawing for the first half, and then painting. The first evening is an ‘ice breaker’, exploring differing approaches to drawing i.e. structural and tight, as well as free and expressive and exploratory. The point of this is to convey that we need both the intuitive and feeling and the analytical and structural approach to drawing, even though the emphasis in these classes is on representational, or ‘realistic’ drawing. The next week we look at analysing form and then breaking down complex organic shapes into their most simple geometrical forms, and working up from the simple to the complex in developing the drawing, coming to understand perspective and form, forshortening, dimension and proportion, composition and understanding positive and negative spaces. The second half of the course will be looking at discussing the hows and whys of equipment i.e.: brush size, paper, type and quality of paint, tracing the drawing onto watercolour paper, simple colour theory, achieving the appropriate colours in watercolour which we identify on the specimen, exploring watercolour technique and washes and how to apply these things to reach a satisfactory outcome with the painting of the specimen. I bring different reference books every week to show examples of processes and also diverse approaches to the drawing and painting of plants.


Something unique or unusual that people might not know about me –
I am someone who also works in multi-media-visual as well as sound arts and music. I have produced, written and composed for radio. I like to mix and overlap media.