Anthroposophical Society in Australia

The Art of Chalkboard Drawing with Van James
2024-07-21 14:00 - 2024-07-28 16:00 (Australia/Sydney) | Online
Three workshops with Van James
Waldorf techniques and curriculum for teachers and parents

Blackboard drawing is a vital medium in the art of teaching. From the elementary grades
right through high school the visual storytelling that takes place on the blackboard
allows for a deeper learning that can occur beyond words and numbers; what can be
experienced through colors and forms, in pictures. Pictorial thinking is a critical capacity
for keeping alive and nurturing the imagination throughout childhood and into adult life.
This course will cover the basics of chalk drawing for teachers at the various grade
levels, noting how the board drawings can change with the age and development of the
child. Reviews of participant work on black paper or school blackboards will be
facilitated with a Google Classroom or Padlet link.
When
July 14, 21 and 28 2024
Bookings and fees
Book here

About Van James
Van James is an artist, author, Steiner-Waldorf educator and international advocate for the arts. A longtime teaching-artist in Hawai’i and a mentor for Gradalis Teacher Education. Van is a council member of the Visual Art Section of North America, a mentor with the Academy of Himalayan Art and Child Development, editor of Pacifica Journal, and an award-winning author of numerous books on culture and the arts including Drawing with Hand, Head and Heart, The Secret Language of Form: Visual Meaning in Art and Nature and the recently published Teaching Art History: Engaging Adolescents in Art, Cultural History and the Evolution of Consciousness.

Breathing Out The Winter: A Therapeutic Intensive
2024-07-27 14:00 - 2024-07-28 17:00 (Australia/Adelaide) | Online
Painted Space Studio
presents

An Art Intensive For Nourishing The Soul Forces

Let’s prepare ourselves Spring!
This intensive therapeutic painting workshop brings the health-giving forces of the harmonious breath into our souls and bodies as we breathe out the Winter and breathe in the renewed life coming towards us.

Late Winter can be a difficult time: Nature’s death shudder is still with us, but already signs of hope and new growth are appearing in the earth. By preparing our souls for the burgeoning forces of Spring, we nurture the new forces arising in our inmost being and bring them into harmonious rhythm with Nature’s rhythms.

Based on a classic Hauschka therapy exercise Painting as an Exercise for Breathing, this online workshop is an immersive experience using wet-on-wet painting or pastels and is for anyone in need of soul nourishment.

Online guided exercises and contemplation interspersed with working quietly in the comfort of your home with the company of an Australia-wide community.

Why join the live class? Benefits of live participation
When you paint with others, at the same time as them, even though it is in a virtual environment, you are creating community. Think of it as a group of people coming together with the specific intention to build substance, to create something together, 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.
Who is it for?
Beginners welcome! You do not need to be an experienced artist to benefit from this workshop. Participants are guided through the experience with demonstrations.
When

2-5pm ACST, 27-28 July 2024
Cost
$190 AUD/$134 USD including recordings
Bookings
Book here

You will be sent the payment details and a list of suggested materials after payment.

The Zoom link is sent one (1) day before the workshop.
For more information
Please contact Fiona Campbell at Painted Space

Feature image: excerpt of painting of the cycle of the plant, Weleda Calendar 2000 © Alexander Winter

Working with Steiner's Nature Mood Sketches
2024-08-31 15:00 - 2024-11-23 17:00 (Australia/Sydney) | Online
Painted Space Studio
presents
The Seven School (Friedwart) Sketches series

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 or pastels, if preferred.
The Seven School (or Friedwart) Sketches were first given to Waldorf teachers as part of Steiner’s new impulse for understanding both Art and Nature, to help students explore invisible yet objective laws of Nature. The series leads us from the archetypal nature moods of sunrise and sunset through the four elements to the human world, culminating in a Madonna and Child motif.
What are the Training Sketches?
Theses sketches are part of a comprehensive portfolio known as the Training Sketches for the Artists. Along with The Nine Training Sketches (Nature Moods) and the Goetheanum epochs motifs, they form an important part of this portfolio.
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.
Who is this course 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 foundations of the anthroposophic approach to art, colour and painting. You do not need to be an experienced artist to enjoy this course.

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, 31 August-23 November 2024
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, unless your time zone makes this impossible.
Cost
$300 AUD/$205 USD
$305 AUD for PD certificate
Video recording included in the fee, available for private study.

Book here!

How to join the workshops
The Zoom link, payment details, a list of materials and suggested readings will be sent to you after booking.

Other Painted Space Studio workshop courses

For more information

Contact

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

Steiner

Feature image: Sunlit Tree by a Waterfall No. 6 © Fiona Campbell

A Conversation With Your Garden: Plant Observation And Drawing
2024-09-11 17:00 - 2024-11-20 18:30 (Australia/Sydney) | Online
Painted Space Studio
presents
A Series of Workshops on Goethean Observation and Nature Moods

Let’s prepare ourselves Spring!
Spring is the ideal time of year to turn our eyes to Nature and learn her secrets through Goethean observation, drawing and reflection. Spending time up close with Nature in the garden, a park, a local nature reserve or even just with a few pot plants on your balcony is both energising and healing.
(Of course, any time of the year in Nature is good, but Spring and Autumn have particular qualities of change and transformation especially suited to drawing and observation.)
What will we do?
Through the six online workshops, learn to see anew the wonder of your own garden. Each workshop leads us through a process of becoming ‘at home’ with Nature, from quiet contemplation, careful observation, and mood immersion, to sketching, colour work and reflection.
Learn the core stages of a phenomenological process and practice the different drawing/sketching 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.
By getting up close with our garden in this way, the world around us becomes more alive – living and becoming.
What is Goethean phenomenology?
Goethean phenomenology (also known as Goethean observation) helps us develops new eyes for the world around us. It offers us another way of being in the world, one that brings us into a more participatory connection with Nature and ourselves. We learn to step into the world and feel at home with it.
Who is it for?

For Steiner teachers, artists, art therapists and art students seeking to understand how the formative forces work in Nature
For anyone interested in knowing more about Goethean phenomenology and how to practice it.

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 on?
5.00pm-6.30pm AEST, 11 September to 20 November 2024
How do I book?

Book here
Please complete the online form to book for this series of workshops. 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.
More information
Find out more about this course and others from Painted Space or contact Fiona Campbell.

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

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

Twelve Days of Christmas – Holy Nights Contemplations
2024-12-25 19:00 - 2025-01-05 20:00 (Australia/Sydney) | Online
The Women and Men in the Life of Christ:
A New Archetype of the Zodiac and Planets
With Jude Neeme-Samson
Daily Contemplation and Conversational Deepening

In each session, there will be three fifteen-minute considerations of the two 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 development of the zodiac and planets in the cycle of the year.
Then we will explore what the twelve disciples in the Gospel narratives represent as archetypes of the zodiac stars in their task in guiding the Christ in experiencing Human life.
In the third quarter of the hour we will explore the women disciples in the Gospel narrative and their role as representatives of the 7/12 planets in guiding Christ into the experience the life forces of humanity.
The final fifteen minutes will be quietly contemplating artistic works of the day’s content that will help grow the work over the Christmas season in preparation for the coming year.
Once you are registered the Zoom link will be sent two days (23/12/24) before we start. The session will start 7:05 pm and it is recommended that you join the link a few minutes early. The link will be open from 6.55pm. The link is the same one for each session.
If there is enough interest there will also be an event on Epiphany, January 6th to bring the process to completion.
Download as flyer
When
7.00 pm – 8.00 pm AEDT
25 December 2024 – 5 January 2025
Cost
Recommended donation $70
To book
Book here
The contemplations will be recorded for people who have registered but can’t participate in person. They can be accessed and watched later. The link to the viewing folder will be sent out with the zoom link.

Feature image: Fifth apocalyptic seal: The unveiled Isis courtesy of Anthrowiki

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 (Australia/Sydney)
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 (Australia/Sydney) | 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

Working with colour, out of colour: a one-day painting intensive
2025-02-22 | Online
A Painted Space Studio workshop

“A whole world opened and showed me colour as a living being.”
Goethe

This intensive workshop is a must for anyone who wishes to understand the role of colour in Steiner’ education and in Anthroposophy in general.
It introduces us to colour as an experience using the immersive wet-on-wet painting technique. It provides you with basic watercolour painting skills and a grounding in Goethe’s Theory of Colour (which underlies the Steiner/Waldorf school curriculum for the visual arts).
Central to this approach is that form arises out of colour, not that colour is attached to form. In this way, we learn to understand colours as having individual gestures, moods that are not bounded by physical form yet nevertheless, follow physical laws.
Painting ‘out of colour’
But how do we paint ‘out of colour’ and not form? And how does this relate to the colours in nature, in the sky, the colours of the rainbow? To answer these questions, we start with Goethe’s colour circle as our guide. By immersing ourselves into the colour circle as it moves from light to dark, heaven to earth and back, we learn how colours work with each other, -and how we respond to them!

Why Goethe’s colour circle ?
Goethe proposed a revolutionary method of approaching the phenomena of colour, one which integrates the observer with the experience. Further, Goethe was concerned with the qualities of colours, which he called the ‘deeds and sufferings of the light’. By immersing our senses in each colour, one by one, we come to a deep, intuitive relationship with them. This, in turn, connects us more strongly to colour in the world around us.
Who is it for?

For Steiner (Waldorf) teachers who want to learn about colour to support their teaching practice (PD certificates available).

For anyone interested in learning to paint in the anthroposophic (Steiner) approach.

This short intensive also provides an introduction to the Art as a Path of Schooling for the Soul training. Working with Colour Moods follows on from this course, a further exploration of Goethe’s Theory of Colour but introducing the wet-on-dry watercolour painting technique.
When is it?
All-day workshop, 10am-1pm, 2pm-5pm AEDT, Saturday 22 February 2025
Cost
$120 AUD/$80 USD
$130 for PD certificate
Video recordings included in the fee, available for private study.
Bookings
Book here!
You will be sent the payment details and a list of suggested materials after booking.
The Zoom link is sent one (1) day before the workshop begins.
For more information
Contact Fiona Campbell

Feature image: Goethe’s symmetric colour wheel with associated symbolic qualities (1809)

Autumnal Conversations With Your Garden: Goethean Observation and Drawing
2025-02-26 17:00 - 2025-05-07 18:30 (Australia/Sydney) | 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

Great Expectations: International 2025 Kolisko conference
2025-04-11 - 2025-04-14 | Taikura School, 505 Nelson Street North, Hastings, New Zealand
Meeting the Challenge of Expectations
for Self, Each Other and of Life
11-14 April 2025, Hastings New Zealand

Welcome to Kolisko 2025
This year our conference focuses on the theme of expectations and meeting the expectations we hold, often unconsciously, for ourselves, for each other, and for life. Our theme for the conference evolved through conversations with parents, teachers and health professionals around the knotty issues they are facing in their daily work environment

Our aim with the conference is to develop new and more comprehensive ways to look at our developing Self, to better understand the also changing and developing Other, and to work with the great expectations we carry.
Kolisko conferences began to honour and continue the work of Dr Eugen Kolisko. Dr Kolisko was the first Waldorf school doctor. He worked together with Rudolf Steiner and the first Waldorf school’s teachers to create a school curriculum based in knowledge of the developmental stages of the incarnating child and through this support their individual maturation and longer term health. Dr Kolisko was also instrumental in establishing therapy modalities in art, including a therapeutic eurythmy curriculum for school children and young people.
Download the program and timetable
Where

Taikura Rudolf Steiner School, Hastings, New Zealand

Fee

Early Bird of NZ $420.00 GST incl. Your registration must be received and paid for by February 9 2025.
Registrations received from February 10 are at the regular fee of NZ $460.00 GST incl.
Registrations close on Monday March 24, 2025.
Register here!
For more information
Email: kolisko2025@gmail.com
Facebook: Kolisko 2025

Humor and Rudolf Steiner: A Presentation by Van James
2025-05-11 13:30 (Australia/Sydney) | Online
Save the date!
Register here!

Working with the Four Elements in Nature: Veil Painting Course
2025-06-07 15:00 - 2025-08-02 17:00 (Australia/Sydney) | 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 (Australia/Sydney) | 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

Indonesia International Conference on Anthroposophy
2025-07-30 - 2025-08-02 | Parahyangan Catholic University, Jaian Ciumbuleuit no. 94, Bandung,, West Java, Indonesia
30th July – 2nd August 2025

Download the full flyer

Warm greetings from Indonesia.
We are pleased to extend an invitation to participate in the International Anthroposophy Conference, which will be held in Indonesia from 30 July to 2 August 2025. This significant event will bring together individuals and organisations from around the world who are committed to the values and practices inspired by the work of Rudolf Steiner.
The conference will offer a rich program of keynote lectures, workshops, artistic activities and collaborative dialogues, all aimed at deepening our shared understanding of anthroposophy and its application in various fields of life, including education, agriculture, medicine, economy business and community development.
In the spirit of international collaboration, we kindly ask for your support in sharing the attached flyer with your members, colleagues, and wider network. Your assistance in spreading this information would be greatly appreciated and will contribute to the diversity and depth of the conversations we hope to cultivate during the conference.
Find out more
You can see completely information on our website, download the full flyer or follow us on instagram with the address anthroposophy.indonesia
Should you require any additional information or materials, please do not hesitate to contact us.
We sincerely hope that members of the Steiner Education Australia association and other interested individuals will be able to join us for this meaningful gathering.

Sincerely,
Kenny Dewi
Chief Coordinator

Breathing Through The Cycle Of The Year: A Therapeutic Intensive
2025-08-04 17:00 - 2025-08-07 18:30 (Australia/Sydney) | Online
The soul of the Earth
Lives through the seasons’ changing –
Summer and Winter.

This therapeutic painting intensive evokes the breathing cycle of the year’s seasonal changes through colour, gesture and meditative verse.
Based on a classic Hauschka therapy exercise Painting as an Exercise for Breathing, this online workshop is an immersive, deeply healing experience of the power of the health-giving forces of the earth’s harmonious breath. Rudolf Steiner tells us that the cycle of the earth is a kind of mighty breathing process of earth in relation to the surrounding cosmos (Lecture I, The Cycle of the Year). This lecture is optional background reading for the intensive.
Flowing, breathing colours are highly beneficial for revitalising the burnt-out soul. Find renewal in this special guided intensive over four late afternoons. From Summer’s light, we dive down into the warmth and sleep of Autumn and Winter, before emerging into the life and light of Spring.
Who is it for?
For anyone in need of soul nourishment and renewal. Particularly suited for conditions of insomnia, depression, burnout and long covid.
You do not need to be an experienced artist to participate in this workshop. Participants are guided through the experience with demonstrations.
Online guided exercises and contemplation interspersed with working quietly in the comfort of your home with the company of an Australia-wide community.
Benefits of live participation
When you paint alone, you are doing it for yourself. But 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 everyone. Think of it as like visual prayer, 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.
When
5.00pm to 6.15 pm AEST, Monday 4th August to Thursday 7th August.

Cost
$210 AUD/$140 USD
Video recordings available after the intensive

Bookings
Book here
Please complete this form to book for this short intensive workshop. You will be sent the payment details and a list of suggested materials and a reading after booking.
The Zoom link is sent one (1) day before the first workshop. Use the same link for each session.
Find out more
Please contact Painted Space Studio

Feature image: Blossoming Fruiting Trees © Fiona Campbell

Working with Steiner’s Training Sketches for the Artists
2025-09-06 15:00 - 2025-11-29 17:00 (Australia/Sydney) | 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

A Conversation With Your Garden: Goethean Observation and Drawing
2025-09-10 17:00 - 2025-11-19 18:30 (Australia/Sydney) | Zoom online events, Australia
Oh, I who wish to grow, I look out, and inside me the tree grows.
Rainer Maria Rilke

Learn to see your garden with new eyes and learn new drawing techniques!

These six online workshops uses the core stages of the phenomenological process of Goethean phenomenology using charcoal, pastels, shaded and dynamic drawing.
Spring and Autumn are ideal times of year to turn our eyes to Nature to learn her secrets. The cycle of the plant is particularly on display to us, as seed becomes leaf, leaf becomes bud, then flower turns to fruit and finally, seeds return to the earth. (Of course, any time of year in the garden is good, but Spring and Autumn have particular qualities of change and transformation, which are especially suited to observation and drawing.)
What will we do?
Each workshop leads us through a process of becoming ‘at home’ with Nature, using quiet contemplation, careful observation, mood immersion, sketching and colour painting.
Participants keep a visual diary to document their discoveries and observations.
By getting up close with our garden in this way, we learn to step more deeply into the cycles of life.
What is Goethean phenomenology?
Goethean phenomenology (also known as Goethean observation) helps us develops fresh, new eyes for the world around us. It offers us another way of being in the world, one that brings us into a more participatory connection with both Nature and ourselves and helps us develop new organs of perception.

Phenomenology is the way of the future!

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 AEST, Fortnightly Wednesdays 10 September – 19 November, 2025
Cost
$225 AUD/ $145 USD
$230 PD certificate, conditions apply
Video recordings included in the fee, available for private study.
Book here

Find out more!
Contact Fiona Campbell at Painted Space Studio

Feature image: The Plant between the Sun and Earth by G.Adams and O. Whicher plate VIII

The Michaelic Mystery: An Artistic Journey Exploring
2025-09-12 14:00 - 2025-11-21 16:00 (Australia/Sydney) | Online
This masterclass in painting explores the nature and mission of Michael, the Archangel of our age, in connection with the human life and the seeds we plant for the future. .
Our path of inquiry draws on Rudolf Steiner’s lectures on this theme, starting with The Cycle Of The Year As A Breathing Process, Lecture V and lectures from The Michael Mystery.
Who is the course for?

For students of Anthroposophy who want to experience spiritual science through the arts, knowing through doing.

Painting skills and understanding of fundamental anthroposophic principles recommended to get the most out of this course.
Cost
$280 AUD/$190 USD
Video recordings included in the fee, available for private study.
Bookings
Who is Michael ?
Michael (pronounced Micha-el) is a higher being whose name means ‘who is like God’. He an archangel of Christian, Judaic and Islamic religions and is often portrayed in art as slaying a dragon or Satan or with scales for weighing souls on the Day of Judgement.
He is said to inspire a cosmopolitan or world consciousness in us, at a time when human beings are becoming more and more individualised and egocentric, and our world more and more chaotic. His silent words provide a sure, steady, conscious pathway to bring our own spirit into harmony with World Spirit.
Thinking as a Michaelic person has always to do with endeavouring to implant something of the spiritual into the wider cultural-scientific and social economic life of our time.
For more information
Contact Painted Space Studio

Feature image: Michael and the Dragon, © Fiona Campbell 1999

The Michael age has dawned. Hearts begin to have thoughts. Enthusiasm no longer flows from mystical obscurity, but from the inner clarity that thought conveys. To grasp this is to receive Michael into one’s soul. Thoughts that today seek to grasp the spirit must spring from hearts that beat for Michael as the fiery cosmic prince of thought.’ Rudolf Steiner

Working with Composition: Bringing Ego Organisation into Painting
2025-09-13 15:00 - 2025-11-22 17:00 (Australia/Sydney) | 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

World Goetheanum Forum 2025 in Sekem, Egypt
2025-09-24 - 2025-09-28 | Sekem, 3 Cairo-Belbes Road, Heliopolis,, Cairo, 11361, Egypt
World Goetheanum Forum 2025
24th -28th September 2025

For the first time, the World Goetheanum Forum is going to Sekem, the place of lived sustainable development and United Nations Champion of the Earth 2024! As a ‘Sustainable Native’, Sekem has almost 50 years of experience in ecological, social, economic and cultural sustainable development.
Celebrating diversity!
We encounter diversity in new partnerships, from seed companies to an upcoming children’s festival. Diversity is evident in all encounters between partners at events such as regional meetings and the World Goetheanum Association’s partner meeting. At the same time, ‘diversity’ poses a challenge to us because, socially, we are only at the beginning, and, if we do not develop further, we will reach the end ecologically. That is why diversity is one of the goals of sustainable development. We want to feel, think and explore this idea together in Sekem from 24 to 28 September. This is what our contribution in terms of content attunes us for.
We invite you to actively engage with partners and practitioners worldwide in forum work on sustainable development.
Looking forward to welcoming you in SEKEM, on behalf of the preparation group,
Download the program
Associated events
Pre-forum: ‘Sustainable Development for Global Impact: Scientific Conference’ at Heliopolis University on Wednesday, 24th September from 10 am to 4 pm
Post-forum: ‘Celebrating Farming: Climate Heroes of Egypt’, at Sekem, Sunday, 28th September from 10 am to 2 pm.

Preparation group

SEKEM
Helmy Abouleish

Goetheanum – Section for Agriculture
Johannes Kronenberg

World Goetheanum Association
Andrea Valdinoci and Katharina Hofmann

Find out more …
Contact the World Goetheanum Association
Web registration

Feature image: courtesy of the World Goetheanum Association
Photo: courtesy of Sekem

Angels Watch Over Us: A Contemplation For Advent
2025-12-14 17:00 - 18:00 (Australia/Sydney) | Online
Painted Space Studio

presents
An Advent contemplation to lead us into Christmas
on how the angelic orders have guided and protected us through the ages

How can we strengthen our connection with the spiritual beings around us?
Where do we most often encounter them in our earthly lives?
At a time when world and personal events can seem to overwhelm, we can remind outselves that we are in the special care of higher beings who accompany us throughout our earthly lives and beyond.
Through contemplating artwork and verse, we reflect upon how we humans have encountered and imagined the angelic orders above us through the ages, and why such imaginations are so important to our souls’ peace and strengthening.

Suggested reading
Our Spiritual Companions by Adam Bittleston
Cost
$20 donation or whatever you can afford to support this initiative.
When
5.00pm – 6.15 pm AEDT
14th December 2025
Bookings
Contact
Fiona Campbell

“See, I am sending an angel before you to guard you along the way and to bring you to the place I have prepared.”
Exodus 23:20

Feature image: Angel s Watch Over Us ⓒ Fiona Campbell
