Workshop: Memory and Mark Making with Julia Roche

Julia Roche_painting on ground_Photo Jacqui Cooper

Enjoy a day of lush material experimentation in the MAMA Studio with Wagga-based artist Julia Roche. In this workshop, you are invited to enter a space of exploration. Roche will offer a brief introduction to her practice and methods of working, before running the group through a series of drawing activities that encourage us to loosen up. These activities will prompt participants to draw from their memory to inform subject matter and application processes. Participants will use the second part of the workshop to work on two longer sustained works on paper.

This workshop is ideal for those who have a basic understanding of drawing/painting, and are looking to explore more experimental methods of art-making. Suitable for ages 16+.

Materials list provided:

Arches oil paper (300gsm)
Gesso
Acrylic and oil paints
Oil sticks
Linseed oil
Charcoal powder
Charcoal sticks
Shellac leaf
Brushes
Graphite pencils

Suitable for Adults 16 years+
Materials included
BYO lunch + dust/respirator mask

Meet the Tutor: Julia Roche

Julia Roche_pictured in her woolshed studio

Julia Roche is an artist based on Wiradjuri country, near Wagga Wagga. Her practice embraces a collaboration with the environment that simultaneously impacts and inspires her work. Responding to her immediate surroundings, Roche works across different materials to create large-scale works on paper that evoke the essence of place and mark moments in time. Using natural charcoal, pastels, acrylic, oils and shellack, Roche’s layering process and mark making techniques utilise the artist’s physical gesture, conjuring both the real and the illusionary.

Roche’s process of leaving works outside and vulnerable to natural elements allows mist, rain, sunlight, and debris to become imprinted on the canvas. These elements are invited to resist or unite with the charcoal, acrylic paint, and other mark-making materials. Working from a repurposed woolshed studio, Roche is often susceptible to the seasons as changes in the weather are felt and seen through the gaps in the corrugated iron of her studio. This experience pushes Roche’s practice, allowing it to morph intuitively to let artworks be shaped by her experiences, changing emotions and connection to place.