Colour Mixing Masterclass
with Johanna Larkin
2-4 April 2027
2 days tuition | Oils | Colour Mixing | All Levels
Discover just how much colour can be created from a remarkably limited palette.
Over two focused days, you’ll learn a practical and repeatable approach to colour mixing, creating more than 180 colour variations from just three primary colours plus white — and leave with your own personal colour reference to use in the studio for years to come.
Residential retreat at Greenhills Art Centre, Western Australian Wheatbelt
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2 Days Tuition
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Oil Paint
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Limited Palette Colour Mixing
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All Materials Supplied
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All Levels Welcome
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Residential Retreat
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Maximum 10 Participants
Take the Guesswork Out of Colour
Colour mixing is one of the most important skills a painter can develop — but it is also one of the areas that can cause the most frustration.
How do you mix the exact colour you see?
Why does one mixture stay luminous while another turns muddy?
How do you make a colour warmer, cooler, lighter, darker or quieter without losing it completely?
This two-day masterclass is designed to take some of the mystery out of colour.
Rather than relying on memorised formulas, you’ll work through a structured system that helps you understand how colours behave and how they relate to one another.
Using just three primary colours and white, you’ll discover an extraordinary range of possibilities.
A Limited Palette.
Throughout the weekend we will work primarily with:
Ultramarine Blue
Cadmium Red
Cadmium Yellow
White
From this simple palette, you’ll learn how to systematically create more than 180 colour variations.
As you mix, compare and organise your colours, you’ll begin to recognise the subtle shifts that happen when proportions, value and temperature change.
The aim isn’t to memorise hundreds of colour recipes.
It is to develop an understanding of colour that allows you to make better decisions whenever you paint.
During the Masterclass You’ll Explore
Value
Learn to recognise how light or dark a colour really is and why getting the value right is often more important than matching the exact hue.
Warm & Cool Colour
Explore temperature relationships and discover how small shifts towards warm or cool can completely change a mixture.
Neutralising Colour
Learn how complementary colour can be used to soften and neutralise mixtures without creating lifeless or muddy colour.
Clean Colour Mixing
Understand why colour sometimes becomes dull and how to maintain clarity and luminosity in your mixtures.
Colour Matching
Develop a more systematic way of looking at a colour, breaking it down and recreating it on your palette.
Chromatic Blacks
Create deep, rich darks by mixing colour rather than automatically reaching for black from the tube.
Understanding White
Discover that white is not simply white. Learn how subtle temperature and colour shifts can create an enormous variety of beautiful pale mixtures.
Harmonious Colour
See how working from a limited palette naturally creates relationships between colours and helps bring harmony to a painting.
Create Your Own Colour Reference
During the masterclass, you’ll build a carefully organised personal colour reference from the mixtures you create.
This becomes much more than an exercise completed during the weekend.
Back in your own studio, it can be used as a visual reference when you are trying to identify, match or adjust colour.
Instead of wondering How did I make that colour?, you’ll have a record you can return to again and again.
From 180 Colours to Nearly 600
The system doesn’t have to stop when the weekend finishes.
Once you understand the process using three primary colours and white, I’ll show you how the same method can be expanded.
By introducing just two additional colours, it is possible to create nearly 600 colour variations using the same principles.
You don't need hundreds of tubes of paint.
You need to understand what the colours you already have are capable of doing.
Your Two Days in the Studio
Day One — Understanding Colour
We’ll begin with the foundations.
You’ll look closely at value, temperature and the relationships between the three primary colours before beginning your colour-mixing system.
Throughout the day, we’ll explore how even tiny changes in proportion can alter a mixture and how to identify what a colour needs when it isn't quite right.
You’ll begin creating and organising your personal colour reference while developing a much clearer understanding of what is happening on your palette.
Day Two — Expanding Your Understanding
On the second day, we’ll build on what you learned on Saturday.
You’ll continue developing your colour reference while exploring neutralisation, chromatic blacks, subtle whites, colour matching and harmonious colour relationships.
By the end of the workshop, you’ll leave with a substantial practical reference and, more importantly, a system you can continue using in your own painting practice.
Your Retreat Schedule
Friday 2 April
Arrive from 4pm
Settle into your room, familiarise yourself with the studio and meet your fellow participants.
We'll come together for a relaxed welcome dinner that evening.
Saturday 3 April
Colour Mixing Masterclass — Day One
A full day in the studio exploring the foundations of colour and beginning your colour-mixing reference.
Morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea are included, followed by dinner together that evening.
Sunday 4 April
Colour Mixing Masterclass — Day Two
Continue developing your colour system and explore more complex mixing, neutralising, temperature, value and colour relationships.
The masterclass concludes at approximately 4pm.
About Johanna Larkin
Johanna Larkin is an award-winning Western Australian artist and co-founder of Greenhills Art Centre.
Her painting practice centres increasingly on still life, using quiet arrangements of everyday objects, limited palettes, carefully observed colour and subtle changes in light and atmosphere.
Johanna has undertaken classical training at the Florence Academy of Art in Italy, further developing her understanding of traditional painting techniques, value, colour, composition and observation.
Her own studio practice led to a fascination with just how much could be achieved with a deliberately limited palette.
The Colour Mixing Masterclass grew from that exploration and is designed to make colour feel more understandable, practical and predictable — particularly for painters who have previously found mixing frustrating or intimidating.
The Greenhills Experience-More than a workshop
At Greenhills, the experience begins before the first class.
Arrive on Friday afternoon, settle into your room and leave the usual weekend distractions behind.
There is no driving backwards and forwards to a workshop, no finding somewhere for lunch and no rushing home at the end of the day.
Your accommodation, studio and meals are all here.
The weekend becomes an opportunity to immerse yourself in learning, spend time with other artists and enjoy the slower rhythm of Greenhills.
Your Retreat Includes:
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2 nights private accommodation
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2 full days tuition with Johanna Larkin
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Welcome dinner on Friday evening
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All meals throughout your stay
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Morning and afternoon tea
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Studio access
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Individual guidance
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Your personal colour reference
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Linen and towels
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Small-group residential experience
Who Should Attend?
This masterclass is suitable for all levels, from beginners through to experienced painters.
You do not need to arrive with an understanding of colour theory.
The workshop may be particularly useful if you:
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find colour mixing unpredictable
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struggle to match the colours you see
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regularly end up with muddy mixtures
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find warm and cool colour confusing
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want to understand value more clearly
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would like to simplify the number of colours on your palette
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want a practical colour system you can continue using at home
Experienced painters may already be familiar with some of the underlying theory, but the structured mixing process can help turn that knowledge into something much more practical.
Materials
All materials are included in the retreat price.
Everything you need for the colour mixing exercises will be provided, including the oil paints and materials required to create your personal colour reference.
The masterclass works from a deliberately limited palette centred around:
Ultramarine Blue
Cadmium Red
Cadmium Yellow
White
You are welcome to bring your own favourite brushes or painting tools if you wish, but it is not necessary.
Your retreat
$820 per person — private room
Price includes GST.
Your retreat includes two nights private accommodation, all meals, two full days tuition, all workshop materials and studio access throughout your stay.
A 20% deposit secures your place. The full balance is due eight weeks before the retreat. Monthly payment plans are available by prior arrangement.
Coming with a friend?
Save 10% each when sharing one of our limited twin rooms.
Twin Share — $738 per person
Independent Stay option
For participants staying nearby or travelling in their own approved self-contained caravan or motorhome, a limited number of Independent Stay places are available.
You'll still join us for tuition, meals and refreshments at Greenhills and full studio access — you simply arrange your own accommodation.
Independent Stay — $580 per person
Price includes GST.
Understand Colour. Don’t Guess It.
Two days devoted entirely to understanding colour.
A simple limited palette.
More than 180 colour mixtures.
A personal reference to take back to your studio.
And a practical system that will continue growing with you long after the weekend is over.
2–4 April 2027
$820 per person — private room
Places are limited.
Book Your Greenhills Retreat
Complete the form below and we'll send your deposit invoice to secure your place.