Anthroposophical Society in Australia

Living Into The Becoming World
2025-02-12 19:00 - 20:30 (Australia/Sydney) | Online
Painted Space Studio
A Lecture on Rudolf Steiner’s Artistic Impulse For The Future
with Fiona Campbell
Thursday, 13th February 2025 7.00 PM – 8:15 PM ACDT

How art can be a schooling path for the ordering & strengthening of the soul
A pictorial presentation on how Rudolf Steiner’s extensive portfolio of training sketches, motifs, watercolours and blackboard drawings are a gift to all artists seeking an ever-renewing source of creativity. How working with Steiner’s images can help us shift from our habitual ways of seeing the world as form and ‘breathe’ into the becoming and dying away world of Human in Cosmos.
This webinar is the third in the series on Art as a Spiritual Practice.
Watch the first lecture in this series!
Cost
$20 donation or whatever you can afford to support this initiative.
A video recording wiill be available for three months after the event.
How to join the webinar
Book here
Participants will be sent the Zoom link by email two (2) days beforehand, and then again one (1) hour beforehand.
Please login for the webinar via your Zoom app and not via Eventbrite.
For more information
Contact the organiser.

Feature image: The Birds Fly Through Us, courtesy of Fiona Campbell

Spirit in Human, Human in Spirit: Investigations with Painting
2025-02-14 14:00 - 2025-05-09 16:00
Painted Space Studio presents
A course in the spiritual/physical nature of the human being

“In the head the power of faith;
in the heart the might of love ;
in the full human being, all-sustaining hope.”
Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner’s picture imaginations arose from direct experiences of the spirit. He captured many of these pictures in his pastels sketches and paintings, called the Training Sketches for the Artist. He suggested that working artistically with these sketches would act as an impulse in us to find new directions for the future of art as a path for spiritual-scientific inquiry.
This online masterclass in painting over seven fortnightly sessions examines the human being in connection to the spirit from three different perspectives: the spiritual impulse in the human being, the human impulse in the spiritual world, and the threefold human being as spirit, soul and body.
We use three of Steiner’s training sketches as our starting point for this exploration.
What are Steiner’s Training Sketches?
The Training Sketches can be seen as ‘picture seeds’ and were given to the artists in answer to a request from the painter Henni Geck for a new impulse in art. Henni Geck (1884-1951) was the first painter to use these indications.
Who is the course for?

For Steiner teachers, artists, art therapists and art students seeking to understand the hidden forces of Cosmos and Nature.

Painting skills and understanding of core anthroposophic principles recommended to get the most out of this course.
Selected readings by Rudolf Steiner complement the practical work.
When is it?
14 February-9 May 2025, Fridays 2pm-4pm AEDT
Seven fortnightly classes plus recording
Cost
$280 AUD/$190 USD for ongoing participants
$290 for PD certificate or for new participants enrolling only in this course.
Video recordings included in the fee, available for private study.
Book here!
You will be sent the payment details and a list of suggested materials and readings after booking.
The Zoom link is sent one (1) day before the workshop begins.
For more information
Contact Fiona Campbell

Feature image: The Threefold Human Being © Rudolf Steiner Verlag

The inner nature of colour: as pictorial, as luminous
2025-02-14 14:00 - 2025-05-10 16:00 | Online
A Painted Space Studio workshop

When we experience the life of colour,
we step out of our own skins and take part in cosmic life.
Rudolf Steiner

Colour as a way to the spirit
This online painting course offers the opportunity for a deeper experience and understanding of the inner nature of colour. Building on Goethe’s Theory of Colour, yet quite different from it, Rudolf Steiner shows us the world of colour as one might experience it in the soul world.
About Steiner’s colour circle
We work in conjunction with Rudolf Steiner’s colour circle and Colour lectures (CW 291, CW 275). In these lectures, Steiner describes the colours as having either a pictorial (image) and or a luminous (lustre) nature. We explore what this means for our understanding and experience of colour that has implications for how we perceive what we call ‘reality’.
In this approach, Steiner lays a foundation for a practical technique of working with colour that leads us to a new form of artistic creativity, a new way of understanding of colour, which is the central of the anthroposophic approach to painting.
Who is it for?

For artists, art therapists and art students looking to find a path of soul/spiritual development through the arts.
For anyone pursuing a deeper understanding of the anthroposophic approach to art, colour and painting.
For participants in the 2nd year of Art as a Path of Schooling for the Soul.

Desirable background:: experience of working with Goethe’s Theory of Colour.
Recommended: basic watercolour wet-on-dry or veiling skills (you can use wet-on-wet or pastel if preferred, but wet-on-dry watercolour painting is recommended).
Background readings: Steiner’s Colour lectures Part I: ‘The Nature of Colour’
When is it?
15 February-10 May 2025, Saturdays 3pm-5pm AEDT
Seven fortnightly classes plus recording
Cost
$300 AUD/$195 USD
$310 for PD certificate
Video recording and handouts included in the fee.

Book here!

The payment options, Zoom link, and list of materials will be sent after booking.
For more information
Contact Fiona Campbell
This course also a core component of Art as a Path of Schooling for the Soul. It follows on from Working with Colour Moods. Together, they are integral to the anthroposophic (Steiner) approach to colour and painting.

Feature image: Steiner’s Colour circle

Autumnal Conversations With Your Garden: Goethean Observation and Drawing
2025-02-26 17:00 - 2025-05-07 18:30 | Online
Painted Space Studio presents

Oh, I who wish to grow, I look out, and inside me the tree grows.
Rainer Maria Rilke 1914

Immersing ourselves in Nature as She turns inward …
Autumn is the wonderful time of year to turn our eyes to the changes Nature brings to the garden: the reds and golds of European trees, the bounty of fruits and late vegetables, all mixed in with the evergreens and native plants following their own local seasonal changes.
Whether you have your own garden or like to walk in a local park, a nature reserve or even just tend a few pot plants on your balcony, being with plants in their endless cycles of becoming and dying away is both energising and de-stressing for us. A health-giving counterblance to computer work!
Using Goethean phenomenology to guide us, these six online workshops will help you to become more ‘at home’ with nature.
The workshops use mixed media and different drawing techniques to take us through this process. Techniques include charcoal, pencil, paint and pastel. Participants keep a visual diary to document their discoveries and observations.
What is Goethean phenomenology?
Goethean phenomenology (also known as Goethean observation) helps us develops fresh, new eyes for seeing and engaging with the world around us. It brings us into a more participatory connection with both nature and ourselves.
Who is it for?

For anyone interested in knowing more about Goethean phenomenology and how to practice it.
For nature lovers who would like to learn a non-confrontational way of drawing plants.
For Steiner teachers, artists, art therapists and art students seeking to understand how the formative forces work in Nature

Suitable for all levels. You do not need to be an experienced artist to enjoy these workshops. Video recordings included in the fee, available for private study.
When is it?
5.00pm-6.30pm AEDT, Wednesdays 26 February – 7 May, 2025
Cost
$220 AUD/ $145 USD
$230 PD certificate
Video recordings included in the fee, available for private study.
Bookings

You will be sent the payment details and a list of suggested materials and readings after booking.
The Zoom link is sent one (1) day before the workshop begins.
Contact

Feature image: Ethereal Space of Plant Growth, Plate I, The Plant between Sun and Earth © Olive Whicher

Spiritual Food for BD Farmers and Home Gardeners
2025-03-13 19:00 - 2025-04-10 20:30 | Online
Spirit in Matter

presents

5 Consecutive Lectures
Spiritual Food for
BD Farmers and Home Gardeners
All Welcome
with

Johannes Schuster

When
Starting 13th March, 7.00 pm – 8.30 pm AEDT
Cost
Join the Full Lecture Series: Early Bird Price: AUD$72 (Until February 20)
Regular price: AUD $97 | Couples: AUD $144 | Concession: AUD$72
Register for Free Lecture

Register for remaining Lectures

Find out more
Watch an introduction to the the theme

Visit the website or contact for more information.

Working with the Four Elements in Nature: Veil Painting Course
2025-06-07 15:00 - 2025-08-02 17:00 | Online
The basis of artistic creation is not what is,
but what might be; not the real, but the possible.

Rudolf Steiner, in The Aesthetics of Goethe’s Worldview

This online course uses the gestures of the material states of solid, fluid, gas, and heat (earth, water, air and warmth) to explore the hidden forces of Nature, and how they reveal themselves through the gestures and patterns through Nature’s imprint on the physical world around and in us.
What will I learn?
The course is an opportunity to develop your veil painting skills through developing brush mastery and enlivened perception of the world in and around us. After working with each different element, participants will create an artwork with a nature theme, bringing all four gestures together in one artwork.
Each element has a different gesture that characterises the phenomenal world of the etheric or life world. These gestures provide variations in veiling approaches that go beyond being mere ‘outer’ techniques and point to how the task of the artist is not to paint the visible, but reveal the invisible.
We use watercolour wet-on-dry painting, the preferred technique of any anthroposophic painting training. It is not an easy skill to develop but very satisfying to master.
You can read more about the anthroposophic approach and why we prefer watercolour over acrylics and oils in this short article.
Who is it for?

For anyone interested in learning the wet-on-dry watercolour technique.
For artists, art therapists and Steiner (Waldorf) teachers who want to deepen their understanding of colour (PD certificates available if requirements are met).

When is it?
3.00pm-5.00pm AEST fortnightly on Saturdays
7 June- 2 August 2025
Cost
$240 AUD/$160 USD
$250 for PD certificate
Video recordings included in the fee, available for private study.

BOOK HERE

The payment options, Zoom link, and a list of materials will be sent to you after booking.
For more information
This course also a core component of Art as a Path of Schooling for the Soul. It provides the beginnings of a sound foundation in the anthroposophic (Steiner) approach to colour and painting.

Contact

Photo credit: Sunlit Tree By A Waterfall, I © Fiona Campbell

Working with Counter Images & Contradictions in the Soul
2025-06-14 15:00 - 2025-08-23 17:00 | Online
The first step (in developing spiritual senses and organs of activity) is to direct the soul’s attention toward certain processes in the world around us.
These processes are life.

Rudolf Steiner, in How To Know Higher Worlds

Imaginative exercises based on the preparatory exercises given by Steiner in How to Know Higher Worlds, using painting, drawing and meditation exercises.
This online course provides an artistic entry into his preparatory exercises for the development of spiritual faculties.working with polarities and the counter images of sunrise and moonrise, growing plant and dying plant. This is a path for the schooling of the soul for higher development and it uses two motifs from Steiner’s Nine Training Sketches for the Artist to guide us on this path.
Through exploration of counter-images and seeming contradictions of polarities, we can strengthen both our imaginative faculties and our life forces.
You don’t have to be an experienced artist to find this course enriching but you do need some knowledge of Steiner’s meditative path and be open to new ways of seeing the world.

Background information
With the increasing, encroaching of AI-generated images filling our screens, through film, tv and internet, the essential creativity that lives deep in the soul of every human being is under threat. AI-generated art is not creative. It does not arise out of human creativity but out of machines. Further, it undermines the very essence of what it means to be human.
In the face of this attack on our human-ness, we need to bring a counter-impulse by strengthening our capacity to work with imaginations that arise out of human spirituality and the spiritual in nature.
By working artistically and contemplatively with colour and the formative forces of life, we can nurture our uniquely human capacities to create, to think and to think creatively, We can counter this dehumanising force,
We need to enliven our imaginative faculties to counter the life-destroying forces bombarding us.
Who is it for?

For artists, art therapists and Waldorf teachers looking to find a path of soul/spiritual development through the arts.
For anyone seeking a non-intellectual pathway into Steiner’s meditative path.
For participants in the 2nd year of Art as a Path of Schooling for the Soul.

To get the most out of this course, it is anticipated participants will work on their own between the fortnightly sessions.
Recommended: familiarity with basic watercolour wet on wet, wet-on-dry or veiling skills (you can use pastel if preferred, but watercolour painting is recommended).
Background reading: Steiner’s How to Know Higher Worlds: A Modern Path of Initiation
When is it?
3PM-5PM AEST Saturdays, 14th June-23rd August 2025
Seven fortnightly classes plus recording
Cost
300 AUD/190 USD
$310 AUD for PD certificate (requires 70% attendance and all exercises submitted to Padlet).
Video recording available for three months included in the fee.

Book here!

How to join the workshop
The payment options, Zoom link, and list of materials will be sent after booking.
For more information
This course is a Painted Space Studio course. It is also a core component of Art as a Path of Schooling for the Soul.
Contact

Feature image: Counter Colours, Counter Forces exercise by Fiona Campbell

Working with Steiner’s Training Sketches for the Artists
2025-09-06 15:00 - 2025-11-29 17:00 | Online
Introducing Steiner’s anthroposophic training path for painters
with Painted Space Studio

‘…and in the creations of the artist there will appear to us
the traces of his soul experience in the cosmos’

Steiner

The Nine Nature Moods or Training Sketches are the definitive foundation and starting point of Steiner’s impulse for the Arts. Given as ‘picture seeds’ to lead us into the future, they open the door to the new anthroposophic approach to painting.

This fortnightly online course introduces you to Rudolf Steiner’s approach to painting and his understanding of how the formative forces shape and move the world around us through his own pastel sketches. The course uses the wet-on-dry veiling technique but wet-on-wet or pastels are also possible if you prefer.

What will we do?

Starting with the sunrise, these sketches take us on an imaginative journey following the sun, moon and seasons as expressions of the spiritual laws in play between earth and cosmos. We work with each sketch creatively yet with careful attention to the forces they embody, first in pastel, then in watercolour to create a wonderful series of heavenly and earthly imaginations.

Who is it for?

For anyone interested learning about the core anthroposophic approach to art, colour and painting.

For Steiner teachers, artists, art therapists and art students seeking to develop their artistic practice.

This course is a core course of the Art as a Path of Schooling for the Soul training. Beginners are welcome, but some watercolour painting experience is desirable. If preferred, you may choose to work with soft pastels only.

What is the importance of the Training Sketches?

Sunrise I, from the Nine Nature Moods series

You can see some interpretations of these sketches here.
These nine nature mood sketches are the starting place for anyone seeking to understand Steiner’s new impulse for the visual arts. But these sketches are not images of external natural events; they refer to acts that are effective in nature and human, says Christiane Haid, head of the Visual Arts Section at the Goetheanum. She believes that working with the creative forces in and around us can become the starting point for facing tasks in healing the world.
The nine sketches are part of a comprehensive 28 motif portfolio known as the Training Sketches for the Artists. Along with Steiner’s watercolours, The Seven School or Friedwart Sketches and many others (the Goetheanum epochs motifs are supplementary to the portfolio), they form the foundation of an anthroposophic art training in painting and drawing. Steiner first gave them to artist Henni Geck in 1922 for the new of painting, just as he earlier developed eurythmy as a new art of movement.

When is it?
3pm-5pm Saturdays AEST, 6 September – 29 November 2025
Seven two-hour fortnightly sessions. Participants are expected to do some homework between classes. Edited recordings of the sessions are available post-class but live participation is preferred to get the most out of the course, including individual feedback, unless your time zone makes this impossible.

Cost

$290 AUD/$190 USD
$300 AUD for PD certificate, conditions apply*
Video recordings included in the fee, available for private study.

Book here!

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

For more information

Contact

* PD (Pr0fessional development certificates) require 75% attendance and exercises on Padlet
Feature image: Moonrise (2022) © Fiona Campbell
Feature quote: from Artistic and Moral Experience, in Colour, Part III

Working with Composition: Bringing Ego Organisation into Painting
2025-09-13 15:00 - 2025-12-06 17:00 | Online
An exploration of the role of composition in painting in relation to the ego or “I”as the organiser of our soul life, through painting, drawing and art history observation. The health-giving effects of working consciously with the principles of the fourfold human being underpins this studio course.
What is composition?
Historically, artists have always drawn on the laws of perception to arrange the elements within a work of art, to create balance, focus, unity or harmony in the work. This need for the visual ordering of colour, line, form and space is essential to our feelings of connection to or our aesthetic enjoyment of a work of art. But why is this so?

Why do we experience harmonious peace in a Raphael Madonna yet also harmonious dynamism in a Turner stormy sea?

Do the elements of a work need to be arranged in a balanced compositional way to be aesthetically pleasing to the eye? Or can we also find satisfaction in chaos and unstructured movement? and what is happening within us when we experience this sense of enjoyment with a painting?
Simply, what is the role of our “I” when creating or contemplating an art work? How do bring presence to our paintings?
What will we do?
In this online course, we explore the principles of composition and learn how to leverage these principles to bring the multiple elements of our painting together into unified wholeness. We learn how perception influences our ego organisation and our experience of harmony and balance when viewing both the great masters and our own work.
First, we explore some classic laws of visual organisation, such as the rule of thirds and the golden ratio, by observing how these laws are inherent in famous artworks.
We then learn how these principles relate to the role of our ego as organiser of our soul forces; then how to apply such principles to our own work. Thus, the art work becomes a reflection of the activity of the ego on the fourfold human being, according to the anthroposophic approach to painting.
There is particular focus on the salutogenic effects of consciously working with ego organisation in painting.
Who is it for?
This is a Schooling course but you are welcome to join us!

For artists, art therapists and art students looking to find a path of soul/spiritual development through the arts.
For anyone interested in an artistic understanding of the role of our higher self or I in visual composition.

To get the most out of this course, it is anticipated participants will work on their own between the fortnightly sessions.
Required: some familiarity with the anthroposophic approach to art and basic painting technique. Watercolour veiling/wet-on-dry skills are preferred.
Please note: this is not a step-by-step instructional class so not advised for beginners in painting unless you are adventurous and self-motivated!
What dates are the classes?
3pm-5pm AEST Saturdays
13 September-6 December 2025
The workshops are recorded but live participation is preferred, unless your time zone makes this impossible.
How much does it cost?
$300 for PD or for new participants.
$280 for ongoing participants
Recordings available post-course for private study.
How do I book?
Book here
After registration, participants will be sent the payment details and a list of suggested readings and materials.
The Zoom workshop link is sent one (1) day before the class.
For more information
Please contact Fiona Campbell at Painted Space Studio

About the presenter
Fiona Campbell is the director of Painted Space Studio. She a researcher, lecturer, visual artist and arts educator. She has an interdisciplinary PhD on creativity and cognition and also trained as an art therapist.
She has special expertise in the anthroposophic approach to painting and has been teaching painting for 25 years.
Fiona is also a member of the Stream of Life Research Studio, where she focuses on her other two specialisations, phenomenology and creative cognition.
You can find out more about Fiona on her website or listen to a ABC Soul Search interview with her about the anthroposophical approach to art.

Feature image: Indigo and Umber Study I © Fiona Campbell 2000

The Twelve Days of Christmas: An online Holy Nights course
2025-12-25 19:00 - 2026-01-06 20:00
The Temple of Humanity on the Far Shore of Time
The work of the hierarchies in us through birth, death, destiny, sleep, and meditation.
A contemplation with Jude Neeme-Samson

When
25th December 2025 – 05th January 2026 (possible Epiphany event on January 6th).
This is a one hour contemplation each day from 7.00 pm – 8.00 pm AEDT
Program
In each session, there will be three fifteen-minute considerations of the themes, which will complement each other and set a mood of soul for participants to work with over the ensuing night and day.
Each day will have the nurturing aspect of a retreat for our soul and our spiritual work in the coming year.
Jude will begin the first fifteen minutes session with the esoteric understanding of the Temple of our Humanity on the Far Shore of Time as described by Rudolf Steiner and how it affects the development of our earthly bodies throughout our life.
In the second part we will explore the nature of sleep and meditation as they affect our journey to the temple in the life after death.
Then we will explore further developments of the Meditation ‘Wisdom Lives in the Light’ in relation to the threefold expression of our karma and spiritual development of our humanity
The final fifteen minutes we will work of the twelve day’s in a way that will help grow the work over the Christmas season in preparation for the coming year.
Cost
$70 AUD for the 12 nights.
Bookings
Book here
Once registered, the recurring zoom link will be sent out two days, two hours and ten minutes before the first session. The same link will be used every day.
Please login via your zoom app
You will also receive a link to the archive folder for viewing the recording. Please us this as a study resource and do not share it with others.
For more information
Enquiries: Jude

Feature image: An imaginative painting of Rudolf Steiner’s wooden sculpture The Representative of Man, by Gabriela de Carvalho.
