ABOUT YOUR TUTORS

FOUNDER & WATERCOLOUR TEACHER

The Artory art school was established in 2015 by award-winning artist Anne Smerdon as a place to foster creativity (a skill that is sadly not being taught in many school and tertiary curriculums today). Anne teaches both kids and adults how to draw, paint and unlock their creativity.

Anne had an early start in the arts: At age 10, Anne won a Creative Art Scholarship with the Queensland Art Gallery. During her school years, she won the Principals Art Award at her high school and was Highly Commended in the Minister’s Art Award, Queensland.

She has since won various other art awards, including the Element Eden Global Artist Search (fine art category), 2013 Trinity College Emerging Artist Award and more recently, the 2021 and 2022 d’Arcy Doyle Still Life Awards. She has also been a 6x finalist in the Border Art Prize.

Anne imparts not only her art skills to her students but also her experiences within the art industry. As a professional artist, she has sold works through commercial galleries in Australia, USA and the UK and she is generous in sharing her advice to keen students. Many of her students have gone on to win art competitions, sell their work and have professional careers in the arts.

COLOUR DRAWING TEACHER

Laura is one of Australia’s finest colour pencil artists. She works with a high level of detail and realism, layering colours in pencil and devoting hundreds of hours to each artwork.

Laura’s exceptional skill for drawing with colours pencils can be seen in her work, which magnifies everyday-objects to larger-than-life scales. This is not an easy task! You can get away with poor technique at a small scale but when you magnify an object, accuracy and details really matter! That’s why Laura’s work is so exceptional.

Laura has a bubbly personality. She is kind and patient which is the backbone of a great art teacher. Every art teacher isn’t necessarily a great artist and every artist isn’t necessarily is a great teacher. But Laura J Stratton is both.

DRAWING TEACHER

Aidan is a professional artist/illustrator. He has a Bachelor of Visual Arts from Griffith University. He works across a range of mediums including pencil, charcoal and digital art. Aidan’s students often mention how knowledgable he is and how great he is at teaching. If you’re looking to learn the foundation to drawing, Aidan is your guy!

PRIVATE ART CLASS TEACHER

Liv Bonnor is a local fine art and tattoo artist. She has an exceptional eye for detail and design. She’s confident tackling even the trickiest of subjects (portraits) and regularly sells commissioned portraits for clients along with her own tattoo designs.

Liv is confident working across many mediums including watercolour, pencil and charcoal. She has been taught by Anne for many years. She started off attending Anne’s Artory art classes as a school student, starting with the Tween art class, then progressing through to the Teen art class and Adult art classes.