Arts on Site: Pastel blooms with Daria Andrews

Learn the basics of pastels by creating your own flower – imagined and inspired – through the lens of Helen Wright’s solo exhibition.

Transformation, ecological fragility, and feminine symbolism meet through multiple mediums in this hands-on creative experience.

Join Launceston artist Daria Andrews for a pastels workshop immersed in the nature of art and imagination. Begin your journey with a guided wander through Shapeshifting: The Art of Helen Wright, a rich exhibition exploring vessels, flowers, and surreal landscapes.

Drawing inspiration from Wright’s evocative use of pastels and floral motifs, you’ll learn to create your own “impossible flower”– a bloom born from emotion, memory, and artistic play.

Expect to get messy – pastel is a tactile medium, and you’ll be using your fingers a lot. Bring your apron, your curiosity, and your creative spirit.

Whether you're a beginner or a seasoned artist, this workshop invites you to share a moment of artistic exploration and connection.

About the workshop

• This workshop is suitable for adults [18+] of all experience levels

• The registration fee includes all materials.
• Please bring an apron or an old shirt to wear, as pastels can mark clothing.

• The workshop's location is the Queen Victoria Art Gallery at Royal Park, 2 Wellington Street, Launceston.

About the artist

Daria Andrews is a painter who lives in Tasmania. She was born in Poland in 1975. Mentored by master post-impressionist landscape artist Alfons Kulakowski, Daria is self-taught. She specialises in large format oil paintings.

Collected globally, Daria’s art focuses primarily on people, with a particular emphasis on women. Through her use of bold and vibrant colours, she explores the intricate complexities of disconnection and personal transformation in modern society.

Daria has held eight solo exhibitions in Australia and Poland, and been part of six group shows. dariaandrews.com.au

About the exhibition

The Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery (QVMAG) and City of Launceston proudly presents Shapeshifting: The Art of Helen Wright—an exhibition celebrating one of Tasmania’s most enduringly vital and visionary artists.

Spanning over four decades of creative inquiry, Shapeshifting explores Helen Wright’s remarkable capacity for enduring transformation.

Working across painting, drawing, printmaking, and sculpture, Wright embodies the archetypal shapeshifter—an artist capable of moving between mediums and meanings, inhabiting different states, and slipping between boundaries both physical and metaphysical.

Shapeshifting: The Art of Helen Wright
Art Gallery at Royal Park, 2 Wellington Steet, Launceston
23 August 2025 – 1 February 2026
Free entry | Open daily | 10am to 4pm

About QVMAG's Arts on Site program

Our ongoing series will immerse you in a vibrant blend of art techniques, taking inspiration from our current exhibitions and with expert guidance from our passionate facilitators.

Find out more about this exciting series at www.qvmag.tas.gov.au/Arts-on-Site