My Art Career
Hello and welcome to my new website! The artwork currently displayed here is a collection of studies and presentation work from my student days at the Julian Ashton Art School in Sydney where I trained. Over time I will substitute newer work for old, so if you are interested be sure to visit again. 
Brief History:
1989           Graduated Sydney University, Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) in art history & philosophy.
1995           "Whistlewood" wood carving school, Sydney.
1996-2000   Julian Ashton Art School - Evening classes, then part time, then full time study. 
2000           Awarded a Scholarship at Ashton's.
2001           Awarded a Diploma.
2002 Term 1 Started teaching an evening class at Ashton's.
2003 Term 4 Started teaching a day class and have taught two classes ever since.

I graduated from High School in 1985, passionate about art and wanting to make a living from painting - but also very dissatisfied with the choices in art training available to me... Ever since I can remember I've been spell-bound by the beauty of nature. When I was very young I declared to my mother that I wished I could "touch with my eyes". But I never felt that my skill in art did justice to my desire. I never considered myself a "natural", and wished I could learn to draw and paint like the Old Masters. Of course the Old Masters were long gone - indeed the art world of the 1970's and early '80's often took cruel delight in reminding us of that. The kind of training I wanted remained a fantasy... I eventually entered University with mixed feelings and despite taking art history, I gradually stopped practising.

My art career really began 10 years later in 1995, when a series of chance encounters and holidays rekindled my then "forgotten" passion for art and finally turned it in the right direction. A travelling wood carver from the U.S. stirred my enthusiasm for sculpture and I later attended "Whistlewood" - a school for wood carving in Sydney. A year later I discovered the Julian Ashton Art School; an institution founded in 1890 that miraculously still taught the kind of traditional skills I had always craved. "Miraculously" because many things had conspired to end its life at around the time I left high school. It had taken a public out-cry headed by the great grandson of its founder, and now its Principal, to keep it open.

By the time I began to study at Ashton's, life had taught me the unreliability of painting for a living - not that it can't be done, but timing is everything and I was no longer motivated to do that. Instead my priority was to slow right down and finally focus on developing my skills. In December 2000 I was awarded a one year scholarship and the following year I obtained a Diploma.

The frustrations I experienced while honing my skills made me increasingly aware of the learning process and the importance of effective teaching. Before too long I became as passionate about that as I was about the skills themselves and I hoped to make teaching my career. I got my first chance in 2002 when the the Principal at Ashton's asked me to teach an evening class and in 2003 I was offered a day class.

Currently my time is divided between teaching at Julian Ashton's, working a retail job, working toward my first exhibtion and writing a drawing manual.

Thanks for your interest.
Alberto Proietta