IT was round-the-clock painting at the shiny new Kingsford Smith school last week as the Artists’ Society of Canberra (NASA), Canberra’s oldest art society, was in full flight with its 12th annual Summer Art Experience.

ASOC president Tim Hardy took me on a tour of the workshops scattered through the capacious building complex while Eckersley’s Art and Craft set up a shop downstairs to cater for the Monday to Friday summer artists’ needs, sending staff rushing around Canberra to pick up supplies as demanded.

The only check on the enthusiasm was caused by the strangely wintry weather, which saw a pair of artists’ models wrapping themselves warmly whenever they could.

According to Hardy, the misfortune of some other regional summer arts schools has proved the good fortune of Canberra’s, as would-be artists flocked to the national capital to join in the intensive painting workshops. This leaves ASOC with a healthy bank balance as it enters 2012.

People hardly looked up as I spied on the activity in watercolour classes by Chan Dissanayake and Nic Canosa, oils by Lyn Diefenbach, acrylics by Jenni Kelly and Richard Rogers, pastel by Lyn Mellady, life drawing by Pauline Adair and wildlife by Sandra Temple.

According to Adair, the level of experience varied enormously, but it didn’t seem to matter – what I saw looked like a summer time labour of love.