Programs including charcoal drawing, painting, sculpture, group artworks, and you can even create your own company art exhibition.

Get creative, recharge, rethink and rejuvenate with unique art experiences designed for all people, even those who claim not to be "artistic". Start a conference on a high, strengthen the team over a morning, wake up an audience mid-afternoon or get creative after dinner.

All options are presented in a dynamic, fun and free-flowing environment with lots of great music for inspiration!

"What a fantastic way to kick-off a conference, a thoroughly enjoyable, interesting and fun team experience. Our Group had a great laugh while also stretching and challenging their Creative sides. As a Facilitator Jessamy helped to both create a great atmosphere and teach us some fundamentals, which contributed to some pleasantly surprising results and a valuable experience for all"

General Mills Australia

Seeing Ourselves and Each other

In this workshop, participants will create dynamic portraits (including one of themselves!) using the basic elements and principles of design, as well as portraiture techniques in a creative and innovative way to capture the essence of their subject, and investigate how to portray particular character traits. Participants will draw each other, themselves and the facilitator inspiring discussion and positive interaction between participants. A range of materials and techniques including pencil, pen, charcoal, pastel, and collage will be available, with fun warm up exercises to free the hand and awaken that inner artist. The aim of this workshop is not to create a picture-perfect representation of the subject, but rather an exploration of personality and how to best express these elements in a creative way. The workshop will feature a final discussion about each work and the different thought / creative processes of the participants.

Art Jam

In this free-flowing workshop, participants will create an abstract work using the design elements and principles to guide them. Participants will be guided through the process of ‘letting go’ through art, getting messy and colourful while creating a piece of work that they can feel proud of. This is a very dynamic workshop using music and warm up exercises to drive participants forward in their pursuit to reach their inner artist. A range of materials and techniques including pencil, pen, charcoal, pastel, and collage will be available.

The View From Here

In this workshop participants will concentrate on seeing images from a different perspective, concentrating on negative space, angles, shape and colour to create a unique and original piece of work. Various different objects will be provided to draw inspiration from, and a life model can also be included for an additional fee. This is a fantastic opportunity for participants to open their mind and see things from a different view, which will in turn inspire creative ‘out of the box’ thinking in other areas. A range of materials and techniques including pencil, pen, charcoal, pastel, and collage will be available.

Speaking Without Talking

communication workshop teaches how to recognise and draw facial expressions and more through the art of portraiture. Researchers have concluded that there are 7 universal facial expressions that are expressed the same way across the world regardless of language, cultural, literacy, wealth, or any other variables. In this fun and informative workshop, participants will learn how to draw each of these expressions, and how to recognise these in other people. This is an excellent workshop to aid in communication skills, particularly for organisations / employees who work with people from varying backgrounds, learning valuable skills in interpreting what people are feeling as well as being aware of how they are presenting themselves. A range of materials and techniques including pencil, pen, charcoal, pastel, and collage will be available.

Mr. Squiggle!

Turn on your creativity and look at things in a different way in this riotously fun reinvention of a classic drawing game. A fantastic team-building and creativity-inspiring workshop, Mr. Squiggle will nurture the participants’ imagination by creating pictures from squiggles. This is a very lively, interactive and energizing workshop. A range of materials and techniques including pencil, pen, charcoal and pastel will be available.

Benefits to participants

In the hectic lives most people live these days, very little time is allowed for creative expression or self-exploration. If an individual is in a highly stressful or demanding job, hectic homelife, or is tied up in any of life’s many distractions, it is easy to lose oneself in the details and forget about the importance of spending time being creative, and considering the way they and other people project and express themselves. There has been a huge amount of research based on the positive effects of undertaking creative programs and training.

It has been found to improve self esteem, self-awareness, motivation, release work-related tensions and stress, enable effective communication between colleagues, and more. Indeed, researchers such as US Michael Posner, Ph. D. have found evidence that arts training strengthens the brain’s attention system, which in turn can improve cognition more generally. Furthermore, this strengthening likely helps explain the effects of arts training on the brain and cognitive performance that have been reported in several scientific studies, such as those presented in May 2009 at a neuroeducation summit at Johns Hopkins University (co-sponsored by the Dana Foundation).

For more information and research please click here.

This is a very fun, dynamic, uplifting workshop and a chance for people to get their hands messy and involved in something creative, as well as a possibly enlightening experience that could make a permanent impact on the quality of life, creativity and confidence of the participant.

Who is this workshop suitable for?

This workshop is suitable for any group of people, particularly festivals, community groups, corporate groups, as a break-up activity at conferences, retreats, disability and mental health staff and groups, and so on. Participants do not need to have any artistic background at all, just a pair of hands and an open mind!

About the Artist

Original portrait artist, street artist and cartoonist, Jessamy Gee sells and creates live works on canvas, paper and recycled materials. Buzzing with her signature style of bright colours, wide strokes and tongue-in-cheek humour, these original artworks are widely appealing and don’t take themselves too seriously – reflecting Jessamy’s belief that art should be available to and enjoyed by everyone. Working mainly in portraiture, Jessamy creates portraits by commission that aim to capture the essence, personality and mood of the subject and express this creatively through her works. Exhibiting since 2005, Jessamy has taken part in numerous group and solo exhibitions, as well as studied drawing and portraiture, contemporary painting techniques and art therapy at Box Hill Institute of TAFE, Victorian College of the Arts, and La Trobe University respectively.

Jessamy has also taken part in a variety of community-based work, in particular working with groups of young people with disability or mental illness, and strives to continue promoting equality, respect and inclusion for these groups through creative programmes.

'Inner Artist' - Portraiture workshop by Jessamy Gee for General Mills 

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Stephen J (Bachelor of Fine Arts, Master of Art COFA) has over twenty-five years experience across staff training, the health profession and adult education, and now works as a full-time professional artist and teacher of art. He has distilled from these experiences, a unique highly effective process for accessing and expressing individual and group creativity.

Start a conference on a high
There's no better way to kick start your event than immersing people in an activity that, in one hit, relaxes, invigorates, extends thinking, gets dormant brains humming and is loads of fun. Stephen J will take your group through a Unique Art Experience that uplifts the spirits of the most jaded person. You'll have people surprised and buzzing with energy and the joy of self discovery. They'll ready to bring their re-energised thinking to your event – and that's a positive for your organisation. Duration 60 minute or 90 minute session. Suitable for groups up to 40 people.

Strengthen or build a team
Overcome barriers and create amazing synergy in your team as Stephen J leads people through a Unique Art Experience designed to boost morale, improve group dynamics and enhance communication. By helping people to relax so they don't worry about what to draw and by using music and movement to help people to enjoy the simple act of drawing, barriers to creativity and communication come down. In their place the team builds respect for each member as they create individual and group art works. The team becomes greater than the sum of its parts. Final creations can be taken back to the office and are digitally recorded for possible use in corporate artefacts such as key rings, mugs and t-shirts or in corporate publications. Duration 2 hour or 4 hour sessions. Suitable for groups up to 40 people.

Wake up an audience
If the mid-afternoon lull threatens the productivity of your group, schedule a one-hour Unique Art Experience at around 2.30 - 3pm and they'll be ready to actively contribute through to dinner and beyond. By activating the brain through the creative use of movement, music and art, people wake up. They feel enthused and are amazed at the clarity of their thinking. They also produce a great piece of art. Schedule this Experience as a one-off or on a daily basis throughout your conference to gain maximum benefits. Duration 1 hour. Suitable for groups up to 40 people.

Get creative after dinner
Don't just sit around after dinner - instead chill-out and get creative. A Unique Art Experience rolls out the grooves and moves as your conference members unwind and move, through art, into a stress-free state of mind. After an evening session with Stephen J, people report feeling positive, uplifted and calm. Many people experience a tranquil euphoria that is almost "zen-like". What a great way to end a day and ensure people will arrive at the next day of your conference feeling re-energised and invigorated. Duration 90 minutes. Suitable for groups up to 40 people.