Art room Update

Year 2 - Laurel Burch inspired cats. Students explored the use of bold outlines, decorative patterns, bright contrasting colours and large expressive eyes to create beautiful artwork. 

CONGRATULATIONS! 

Aspendale Primary School would like to congratulate Jenny Croom (Ruby & Eva McQuilten’s grandmother, AKA Mimsy) on being the winning artist in ABC’s Portrait Artist of the Year, Australia 2025. 

Talented artists from across Australia competed in a once-in-a-lifetime challenge: capturing iconic celebrities in a race against the clock. During the show she painted the following celebrity sitters; comedian Celia Pacquola, Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki and comedy icon Denise Scott in a 4-hour time limit. 

Jenny is a self-taught artist and during the Covid lockdowns she painted a self-portrait depicting her looking back on happy memories from family. Although she has always had a lifelong passion for painting it wasn’t until later in life that she was recognised for her art with her first exhibition at 70. Jenny says she “loves painting faces with feeling and story, where colour and the brush can sing.” Jenny was crowned the winner and won a life-changing commission to paint a portrait of chef and restaurateur, Kylie Wong which was displayed in the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra for six months and now hangs in the foyer of ABC’s Ultimo Headquarters in Sydney. 

The entire series can be streamed on ABC iView. Fantastic work Jenny! Keep on painting!