From the Head of 

Visual Arts

Student Portraits Exhibited at the Cultural Centre

Blue Mountains Portraits at Cultural Centre exhibition from 3rd February – 17 March 2024 is an annual event in the Blue Mountains that celebrates its community and the diversity of people within it.   Six Students (Eliza Huang, Philippa Groombridge, Zara Nicholas, Indigo Herron, Eliza and Otto Umbers) from Blue Mountains Grammar School were selected to exhibit in this wonderful public space and for many of them this was their first public exhibition.  We would like to congratulate the following students who were brave enough to put their self-portraits made as part of a series of four portraits whilst studying Modernist painting up for public scrutiny, we are all very proud of your efforts. 

Below are some examples of the students' artist statements:

Eliza Huang ‘Self Portrait in a Hat’ is an appropriation of Claude Monet's 'Self-Portrait with a Beret (1886)', and aims to replicate its colours and style. Impressionism is a modern style I've always been drawn to more than other modern art eras; perhaps this is because it's comparatively more emotional in its mark making. Impressionism at its core is capturing light and movement, which was difficult to do with a still picture, but it was fun nonetheless.

Philippa Groombridge ‘ A Blooming Joy’ explores ideas of finding Joy in the things we find in nature, specifically Australian flowers is the main focus of my artwork. Finding the joy that nature brings to a person, and finding ways to incorporate and translate that into art is a skill that I wanted to develop. The idea of creating an artwork inspired by the joy experienced through viewing nature first occurred to me through my Wilderness Expedition earlier this year, I got to identify and experience nature in I observed the natural beauty of the scenery of the Blue Mountains. Seeing all the native plants and hearing all the animals on our bushwalks, or at night time when falling asleep under the stars, hearing nature brought me joy, I wanted to try and express my joy through this artwork. 

Zara Nicholas Introspection’s subjective nature proposes personal revelations. My experience with emotion and its fluidity is directly explored through flora in four graphite drawings. Use of graphite throughout the composition aims to draw the connection between Introspection’s two identifying factors (nature and self-portraiture) and highlight the intricacy of nature. The flora’s positioning above my self-portrait portrays a journey of introspection. Their stems extend beyond the paper’s lower edge- their growth below is unseen but vital to their current, thriving state. Depiction of joy, pain and personal growth can be portrayed through Introspection. The three flowers- the Australian Waratah (a symbol of strength, resilience and Australian identity), the English White Rose (symbolic of eternal love) and the Acacia (Australia’s national flower, illustrating rebirth and eternal life). My chosen flowers are a direct representation of my Australian-English identity. 

Mrs Sally Herron  

Head of Visual Arts

Visual Arts Excursion Art Express, Yiribana Gallery and Louise Bourgeois

On the 7th of March Year 11 and 12 Visual Arts students visited NSW Art Gallery, where we attended a lecture about Art Express and viewed the student artwork, attending gallery talk by special guest speaker Leanne Carr on the work of Louise Bourgeois in her exhibition: Has the Day Invaded the Night or Has the Night Invaded the Day? These experiences including visiting the Tank room have enriched our learning as senior students and have inspired us to take inspiration from these wonderful artists as we embark on our own journey to develop our practical bodies of work in Visual Arts. 

Student artists who had been selected into the Art Express exhibition talked about the making process and challenges they had to overcome. It was inspiring to gain insight into their process of art making and how they came up with concepts and a material art practice.

The student artists talked about how they chose to acknowledge ideas of self-expression and  world issues, such as; the decaying planet, the reality of New York City, and how we as a society turn a blind eye to these issues. After the lecture we visited the exhibition where we had the opportunity to look at a range of different mediums including; photo-media, graphic design, time-based forms, paintings, and many more. This gave us the opportunity to challenge and enhance our own ideas. The experience ultimately helped us to delve deeper, start to add layers behind our own conceptual ideas and to enhance our art making. 

After lunch we had the opportunity to hear from an Aboriginal Art Educator in the New Sydney Modern Gallery that has recently been built. Here we explored the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander exhibition, which helped us gain new understandings and information about the artist’s traditions and connection to country, unpacking the stories being told through their artwork and cultural practices. We saw some incredible weaved dilly bags and mats which were weaved by elders, senior women from Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory. We were exposed to a range of traditional and contemporary work. One painting in particular that everyone enjoyed was an ink painting by Iluwanti Ken, which shared ideas of motherhood, by representation of Eagles, as they look down on their children from the sky and teach them to hunt. 

Sophia Morley

Visual Art Captain