Online Course: Colour

Upon completion of this course participants will be able to:

• Explain the basic scientific principles behind colour, and outline the key elements of colour theory.
• Develop or broaden knowledge of the history and development of colour pigments.
• Articulate key examples of the influence of colour on art and design through examples of works in the NGV Collection.
• Discuss key examples of the influence of colour on art and design
• Understand the psychology of colour, and identify its influence on historic and contemporary cultures.

Adam Ferrier is a multi-award winning advertising creative and founder of the agency Thinkerbell. He is also a leading Australian consumer psychologist, and brand strategist. Adam has written two books on advertising and is a regular media commentator.

Amanda Dunsmore is Senior Curator of International Decorative Arts and Antiquities at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and studied Fine Art and Egyptology at Monash University. She worked for many years as a ceramic specialist in Egypt before broadening her curatorial practice in the field of European decorative arts. Her research interests include late eighteenth century English interior design, in particular the work of James Wyatt, and early twentieth century design and the rise of modernism. She has curated numerous exhibitions for the NGV, including Spectrum: An Exploration of Colour (2021), Japonisme: Japan and the Birth of Modern Art (2018), Nordic Cool: Modernist Design from the NGV Collection (2015) and Bugatti: Carlo, Rembrandt, Ettore, Jean (2009).

Annika Aitken is Curator, Art Museums at The University of Melbourne.

Beckett Rozentals is Curator of Australian Art at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). After completing her Master of Art Curatorship at the University of Melbourne in 2009, Beckett began work at the NGV as an Assistant Curator before commencing her current position in 2015. Highlights of Beckett’s career at the NGV include the curation of Robert Jacks: Order and Variation in 2014, Hard edge: Abstract Sculpture in 2016, and the co-curation of The Field Revisited with NGV Director Tony Ellwood AM in 2018. Most recently, Beckett co-curated Found and Gathered: Rosalie Gascoigne | Lorraine Connelly-Northey with fellow NGV curator, Myles Russell-Cook in 2021.

Brad Haylock is a designer, publisher and academic. He is an Associate Professor in the School of Design at RMIT University, Melbourne, where he is Coordinator of Higher Degrees by Research. His research spans typography, publishing, critical theory and the sociology of critique.

Caitlin Breare joined the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) as Conservator of Paintings in 2018, returning to her home city of Melbourne after over eight years studying and working in conservation in the USA, including projects in Spain (Museo del Prado), Italy (Villa La Pietra, NYU) and Turkey (Aphrodisias excavation, NYU/University of Oxford). She holds a Masters in Conservation and Art History from New York University, and prior to the NGV was a paintings conservator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston specialising in research and treatment of old master paintings.

Carl Villis is the Senior Conservator of Paintings at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). He has specialised in the conservation of Old Master paintings for nearly thirty years at the NGV, and in art museums in Italy and the United States. At the Gallery he has conducted major conservation treatments and technical research on paintings by many artists in the collection, including Correggio, Titian, Tintoretto, Veronese, Rubens and Giambattista Tiepolo. He frequently combines his technical analysis of paintings with art historical research and has published studies on works by Poussin, Van Dyck and Bernardo Bellotto, among others. In 2013-14 he was a Craig Hugh Smyth Visiting Fellow at Harvard University’s Centre for Renaissance Studies at the Villa I Tatti in Florence for the purpose of researching and writing a book on his identification of the Gallery’s early sixteenth-century portrait of Lucrezia Borgia.

Charlotte Botica is Curatorial Project Officer, Fashion and Textiles at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). She holds an Associate Degree in Fashion Design and Technology (RMIT University) and Bachelor of Textile Design (Massey University) and is currently completing a Masters of Cultural Heritage at Deakin University.

Danielle Brustman is a designer working with a rich syntax of colour to conceive interiors and furniture that challenge our perception of private and public space. Prior to establishing her interior design studio in 2012, Brustman worked as a theatre designer collaborating with some of Australia’s most celebrated companies. Her installations and design work have been presented at Melbourne International Arts Festival (2012), Dark Mofo Festival (2015), Salon DelMobile, Milan (2019) and Melbourne Design Week (2020). Brustman’s installation Coloured in, 2020 is currently on display as part of the NGV Triennnial 2020 and her installation Inner – Terior was a finalist in the Rigg Design Prize 2018 at NGV. Danielle is the inaugural recipient of the Bank of Melbourne studio residency at Collingwood Yards.

Danielle Whitfield is Curator of Fashion and Textiles at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). Since joining the NGV Danielle has curated numerous exhibitions and spoken and published widely on the history of Australian and international fashion. Recent projects and scholarly contributions include Collecting Comme (2019), The Krystyna Campbell­Pretty Fashion Gift (2019), The House of Dior: Seventy Years of Haute Couture (2017) and, most recently, Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse (2022).

David Coles is the Founder of Langridge Artist Colours, one of the world’s leading artists’ oil paint manufacturers. David was born in the UK where he studied painting at Bristol Art College under a traditional system learning colour, composition and the preparation and manufacture of artist’s paints. A further apprenticeship within the British art material manufacture and retail world furthered his knowledge in the specialised field of materials for artists and artisans. In 1992 David emigrated to Australia, determined to build a business on his knowledge and passion which led to him founding Langridge Artist Colours. In 2017 he created Chromatopia, an exhibition on the origins of colour. Thames & Hudson commissioned him to write an illustrated book on the subject that has become a world-wide best seller with 9 international editions. David’s knowledge of colour, from both an artistic, scientific and historical perspective, has seen him speak at institutions around the world.

Din Heagney is a writer, editor, researcher, art director and teacher. He was born of Irish descent in Melbourne/Narrm and was raised on Dja Dja Wurrung Country in Southeastern Australia where he currently lives. His writing about contemporary art, design and culture has appeared in Australia, USA, Germany, Italy and China. Din has developed projects for the Australia Council for the Arts, Venice Biennale of Art, Biennale of Sydney, Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys, and as artistic director of Platform Artists Group. From 2014–20, he worked at The University of Melbourne, RMIT University, Monash University, and the University of NSW, in a range of roles including research assistance, academic editing, developing and delivering new courses in design, and teaching hundreds of talented students from Australia and around the world.

Glenn Adamson is a curator and writer who works at the intersection of craft, design history and contemporary art. He has previously been Director of the Museum of Arts and Design; Head of Research at the V&A; and Curator at the Chipstone Foundation in Milwaukee.

Dr Hannah McCann is a Senior Lecturer in Cultural Studies and ARC DECRA Fellow at The University of Melbourne. Her research is located within critical femininity studies. Hannah’s first book Queering Femininity: Sexuality, Feminism and the Politics of Presentation was published in 2018, and her co-authored textbook Queer Theory Now: From Foundations to Queer Futures was released in 2020. Her work can also be found in The Conversation, The Wheeler Centre blog, and Overland, and via her blog www.binarythis.com.

Holly McGowan-Jackson is Senior Conservator of Frames and Furniture at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). She joined the NGV team in 1996 following studies at the University of Canberra and an 18-month Andrew Mellon Fellowship in Furniture Conservation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Holly coordinates programs for the conservation of picture frames and furniture, as well as the reframing of artworks based on historical evidence. She manages the NGV Centre for Frame Research and is currently undertaking in-depth research into nineteenth century Melbourne frame makers and the conservation of coatings on gilded surfaces.

Kate Douglas is a Conservator of Textiles at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). Kate has a background in Fine Arts and graduated from University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Fine Art. She continued her studies at the University of Canberra to achieve a Bachelor of Applied Science specialising in Textile Conservation. Kate began working at the NGV in 2000 and since then has worked on a wide range of textile exhibitions in the very busy textiles program. Kate has studied and has a particular interest in furs in the collection, eighteenth century costume and seventeenth century raised embroidery.

Katie Somerville is Senior Curator, Fashion and Textiles, at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). She has worked with a range of fashion and textiles collections for close to three decades, including at the National Gallery of Australia and Historic Houses Trust of NSW. During her time at the NGV she has curated and co-curated numerous exhibitions including Alexander McQueen: Mind, Mythos, Muse (2022), The House of Dior: Seventy Years of Haute Couture (2017), Making the Australian Quilt: 1800–1950 (2016), Express Yourself: Romance Was Born for Kids (2014–15), Martin Grant, Paris (2005–06) and Akira Isogawa: Printemps-Été (2004–05).

Louise Wilson has been Conservator of Paper at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) since 2008 and is responsible for the care of the NGV’s rich paper-based holdings including books, prints, drawings and paintings of diverse ages and origins, Asian hanging scrolls and folding screens. Louise has broad research interests and has published nationally and internationally on a range of subjects including the conservation of Middle Eastern manuscripts, treatment of Indian papercuts, technical examination of eighteenth-century tapa cloth from the Pacific region, art paper supply in Australia and the materials and techniques of William Blake and Albrecht Dürer.

Marcia Hall is the Laura H. Carnell Professor of Renaissance Art in the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University. She is a teacher and scholar of Italian Renaissance painting who has written widely on painting in the sixteenth century, Raphael, Michelangelo and those who followed them. She began her career studying the Counter-Reformation at a time when it was a neglected subject and continues to contribute with books authored and edited as well as professional lectures and graduate seminars. Her other particular interest is technical art history, especially the way painters used color. She has studied artists’ techniques using conservation laboratory research, most recently extending her reach to World War I in her recent book, The Power of Color. Five Centuries of European Painting.

Marika Strohschnieder is the Senior Conservator of Objects at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) and looks after a large and varied collection of three-dimensional works of art. She has worked in cultural institutions in five countries including at the National Museums of Berlin and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Marika’s contributions since joining the NGV in 2003 span from extensive treatments on polychrome wood, stone and ceramic sculptures, to developments of display mounts and participation in research projects. Notable research projects include the technical analysis of the materials used in the construction of the Egyptian coffin lid of Tjeseb and a comprehensive technical investigation of the NGV’s collection of Italian Maiolica with associated publication, a collaborative effort between NGV and the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford.

Meg Slater is Curator, International Exhibition Projects at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). Since 2017, Meg has worked on a number of the NGV’s major international exhibitions, including MoMA at NGV: 130 Years of Modern and Contemporary Art, French Impressionism from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi. Meg was also one of the five curators who organised QUEER: Stories from the NGV Collection (2022), the most historically expansive thematic presentation of its kind ever presented by an Australian art institution. In 2021, Meg completed a Master of Art Curatorship at The University of Melbourne with First Class Honours. Meg’s thesis explored the potential for large arts institutions to more meaningfully engage with marginal subjects and histories through exhibition making and programming.

Philip Ball is a freelance science writer and the author of many books, including Bright Earth: The Invention of Colour. He was previously an editor of the scientific journal Nature. His writings on science for the popular press have covered topical issues ranging from cosmology to the future of molecular biology. He has written widely on the interactions between art and science, and has delivered lectures to scientific and general audiences at venues ranging from the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) to the NASA Ames Research Center, London’s National Theatre and the London School of Economics.

Raye Collins is Conservator of Paintings at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). She joined the Paintings team as a H.D.T. Williamson Fellow in 2007, after completing qualifications in Art History and Cultural Materials Conservation at the University of Melbourne. Raye specialises in the conservation of twentieth century paintings and is currently pursuing technical research on modern varnishes.

Raymonda Rajkowski is Conservator of Paintings at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) where she specialises in modern and contemporary paintings and materials research. She has a background in fine arts and art history, and holds a Masters degree in conservation from the Grimwade Centre for Cultural Materials Conservation, The University of Melbourne. She is currently completing PhD research on the relationship between acrylic paints and Australian colourfield painting.

Ruth Shervington is the Senior Conservator of Paper at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). Having trained in London, Ruth worked privately for several years in an established London practice. Ruth has been at the NGV for the past 25 years and in her time has gained considerable experience in many of different fields represented in the Prints and Drawings, Asian and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander collections. Exhibitions that involved her extensive research and involvement have included Rembrandt in the collection of the NGV; Goya: Reason and Folly, Animals in Asian Art and Hokusai. Ruth has broad research interests that span Europe and Asia, predominantly looking into materials and techniques.

Skye Firth is the Senior Conservator of Fashion and Textiles at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). Since graduating with a Masters of Arts (Conservation) from The University of Melbourne, she worked in private conservation practice in Sydney at International Conservation Services. Her interests have focused on the preservation of costumes within House Museums, treatment of military flags, conservation of nineteenth century silks and historical dyes on embroidery. She joined the conservation team at the NGV in 2017.

Susan van Wyk has been the Senior Curator of Photography at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) since 2012. Since joining the Gallery in 1989, she has curated numerous exhibitions of Australian and international photography. Recent exhibitions include: Olympia: Photographs by Polixeni Papapetrou, Turning Points: Contemporary Photography from China, Alex Prager, Follow the Flag: Australian artists and war 1914-1945, Edward Steichen and Art Deco Fashion, and Thomas Demand. Susan is the author of numerous articles, catalogues and books on photography including: Olympia: Photographs by Polixeni Papapetrou, Henry Talbot: 1960s fashion photographer, No Standing Only Dancing: Photographs by Rennie Ellis, The Paris End: Photography Fashion and Glamour, and co-author of Second Sight: Australian Photography in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.

Susie May is a freelance writer and lecturer in the fields of art, history and literature. She was an educator at the National Gallery of Victoria for 19 years, where she was passionate about inspiring all types of learners to think and learn creatively through art. Her role at NGV involved teaching, writing educational resources and working collaboratively to create short courses for adults. Susie retired from the NGV in 2020 in order to have more time to pursue her own writing and art making. Currently, she is co–authoring a book on teaching creative writing inspired by art and presents online courses and lectures for the University of the Third Age.

Dr Ted Gott is Senior Curator of International Art at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). He has curated and co-curated more than 25 exhibitions, including Salvador Dalí: Liquid Desire, Napoleon: Revolution to Empire, and most recently co-curated QUEER: Stories from the NGV Collection and Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi. He has published widely on Australian, British and French art, and in 2013 co-authored a cultural history of the gorilla in nineteenth and twentieth century art, literature, scientific discourse and cinema (Gorilla, Reaktion Press, London).

Trude Ellingsen is Conservator of Objects at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). She joined the conservation department in 2003 after completing qualifications in decorative plaster restoration from Oslo, Norway and Conservation of Cultural Materials from the University of Canberra. Trude is interested in a broad range of subjects from conservation of delicate eighteenth century porcelain figurines to preservation of plastics and neon lights.

Wayne Crothers is Senior Curator, Asian Art at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). He spent a total of eighteen years living in Japan, including two years at Kyoto Seika University researching traditional Japanese art practices, completed a two-year Master of Fine Art Degree at Tama Art University in Tokyo, and lectured for six years at Musashino Art University in Tokyo. Recent exhibitions include Terracotta Warriors: Guardians of Immortality (2019), Cai Guo-Qiang: The Transient Landscape (2019) and Japanese Modernism (2020).

Colour offers an inspiring and creative professional learning opportunity for teachers of all levels and subjects. Colour meets the following AITSL standards:

A certificate of professional learning is available on request.