At Arts Tree, we work with you to unlock your own voice as an artist; filling your arsenal of artistic tools with everything you must master in order to create beautiful, expressive, meaningful works of art. We believe in the transformative power of making art in your life, and that fluency in drawing, mark-making and colour can not only bring more splendour and meaning into this world, it can also assist your wellbeing and happiness.
De Gillett Cox is Arts Tree’s foundation tutor, in acrylics, inks and oils. De is a practicing professional artist and fine arts tutor with 20 years’ experience in teaching painting, drawing and sculpture across a wide range of media. De holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Queensland College of Art (2012). Now that she has graduated as an Honours College Scholar De is concentrating on bringing the joy of making art to the wider world as a tutor for Arts Tree. De’s lessons are exciting, fun, and are guaranteed to push you out of bad habits and onwards into artistic excellence. De works in a wide range of styles from the photo-realistic to the wild and impetuous and everywhere in between — portraiture, flight, figures, landscape and more. Her wilder work has been described as ‘recklessly sumptuous’ and she specialises in busting students out of their tight and over-controlled beginnings to create beautiful, painterly, exciting works without ever ignoring the importance of learning and practicing good drawing technique.
Ali Gillett aka Brave Arts is a one woman company focused on taking the mystery out of art making, and in turn allowing the gifts that it provides to be unearthed!
Ali teaches face-to-face Art classes for beginners throughout Brisbane, from Arts Tree in Wynnum West, all the way to Amici House in Bracken Ridge.
An average week sees Ali guiding 80+ adult students through the rigours of learning to paint with acrylics including nuanced skills such as drawing, composition and colour theory. As well as teaching here at Arts Tree, she tutors Professional Development Workshops with Oxlade’s Art Supplies, is an Artist in Residence at schools and Aged Care homes, and teaches a weekly class with Mission Australia.
Ali teaches with the awareness that creativity is a vulnerable and brave space and seeks to always encourage her students to learn the skills that are necessary to make art with confidence and ease. Her great loves are portraiture, play, and the way that colour tells a story on our canvasses. When she’s not making or teaching Art, Ali can be found whispering sweet nothings to her plant babies, continuing her studies in Counselling, or watching trashy reality TV (that she calls ‘Documentaries’).
She holds a BA in Fine Art from RMIT, Melbourne, 2014, a Dip. in Art Therapy, CECAT, 2023, a current working with children card, and an NDIS workers card.
THE ARTS TREE MISSION STATEMENT
Aims
Arts Tree aims to be an avenue for positive personal growth through creativity.
Arts Tree provides goods and services that enable and nurture the fine art skills involved with making paintings.
Arts Tree aims to enable an appropriate balance between primacy of concept and primacy of skill.
Vision
Arts Tree as purveyors of the fine arts maintains a non-vocational arts education studio classroom.
Arts Tree as purveyors of the fine arts produces Instructional DVD’s and Tools for Artists.
Arts Tree as purveyors of the fine arts continues to develop its online presence.
Mission
In the pursuit of quality arts tuition, Arts Tree is committed to:
Maintaining and developing professional, courteous conduct at all times;
Providing excellence in fine art tuition;
Facilitating positive experiences for positive outcomes; and
Lifelong learning.
Values
In pursuit of our mission:
Arts Tree believes in and values lifelong learning and personal development;
Arts Tree values informed decision making, problem solving and a high standard of tuition;
Arts Tree believes in continuous quality improvement through professional development;
Arts Tree is committed to transparency and accountability as befits a non-vocational arts education organisation;
Arts Tree is committed to the values enshrining individual rights, inclusivity, ethical standards and social justice;
Arts Tree is firmly committed to tolerance and understanding of diversity in society; and
Arts Tree is committed to contributing to a robust, equitable and environmentally sustainable society.
