Over the coming months, Benalla Art Gallery is presenting a range of workshops designed to ignite creativity, allowing participants to explore different mediums to create individual, unique artworks.

This term there will be workshops exploring ceramics and life drawing, and they will be held at the pop-up gallery in Bridge Street East.

Local potter Juliet Ferguson is hosting two special sessions titled Quirky Ceramic Creatures.

In the first workshop participants will learn to build their own creature using skills demonstrated by Juliet, while in the second workshop two weeks later, they will learn about glazes and how to apply them, before a final firing.

Juliet has been making pottery for years, beginning about 30 years ago at the Benalla Art Gallery, and her charming and expressive representations of animals and birds are often featured and admired in gallery shop displays and exhibitions.

Quirky Ceramic Creatures with be held from 10.30am to 1pm, on Saturday, 14 March and Saturday, 28 March, with all materials supplied.

Benalla Art Gallery acknowledges the support of the Broken River Potters in the firing of pieces, to make these workshops possible.

Also in March, the gallery welcomes renowned Melbourne-based artist, Godwin Bradbeer, to lead a workshop focusing on human portraiture in the context of the physiology of the upper body.

Analysis of anatomical form from a semi-clothed male will be the focus of the session.

Godwin will make frequent reference to the work of artists, both traditional and contemporary, and will make demonstration drawings in situ encouraging confident expressive drawing.

Godwin Bradbeer has been a practicing artist for more than six decades, and he has taught drawing at RMIT, Melbourne University, Monash University and the Victorian College of the Arts.

The workshop, titled Upper Body Workout, life drawing with Godwin Bradbeer, will be held from 12pm to 2.30pm on Saturday, 21 March, with all materials supplied.

Gallery director Eric Nash said the workshops were an opportunity for participants to experiment with a variety of creative mediums, while learning from and working alongside professional artists, gaining an insight into their individual creative practices.

For more information and to book, visit www.benallaartgallery.com.au/learn.