Visual Art News

Year 10 Visual Art students are currently developing artworks for their unit, “The Edge” which relates to the intersection between the natural and the built environment. As part of this unit, students were involved in an excursion which took them to Mitchell Fine Art Gallery where director and Old Boy, Mike Mitchell, showed them around the gallery’s current exhibition, “The Artist’s Garden”, which is a collection of paintings by Bernard Ollis depicting artist’s gardens that he painted during COVID lockdown in Sydney. This was followed by a quick stop at Brisbane Powerhouse, after which a walking tour along the Riverwalk from New Farm to Howard Smith Wharves took place for students to capture photographs, document imagery and develop drawings that will inspire and inform their current mixed media task.

Art Club takes place on a Tuesday afternoon for boarders. This term, students are working on designs that will be printed as photographic screenprints onto calico bags and T-shirts. With two weeks to go, we are looking forward to seeing the finished products.

Week 7 has seen Creative Industries Week unfold around the College campus with various activities, workshops, guest artists and performances facilitated by the Visual Art, Drama, Music and Film and Television departments. The Visual Art department ran two workshops, which included making photograms in the darkroom and screenprinting. We were also very fortunate to have secured world-famous urban/street artist Sofles (Russell Fenn) who worked with the Senior Visual Arts in Practice boys in a practical workshop, where he shared his wealth of knowledge and taught them a range of techniques using aerosol paint. This was followed by a live paint session in the yard where he produced a spectacular artwork in under an hour. This was supported by students from the Music Department’s DJ programme who provided a musical backdrop for the performance. The painting is now on display in one of the Visual Art classrooms.

A highlight of this week has been the announcement of ASHCAM winners. The 2021 Marist College ASHCAM Photographic competition was well supported by students, staff and members of the College community, with a large number of entries being received across all sections. Our guest judge, Dr Joachim Froese was impressed by the high quality of entries and we congratulate the following winners –

PRIMARY SECTION

Winner – Julian Cassar (Year 6)  ; Runner-up – Aidan Marshall (Year 5)

MIDDLE YEARS SECTION

Winner – Roman Ah Loy (Year 10); Runner-up – Henry Knight (Year 10); Highly Commended – Archer Mellifont (Year 7); Blake Whitham (Year 7); Thomas Rees (Year 10)

SENIOR SECTION

Winner – Darcy Knight (Year 12); Runner-up – Louie Watt (Year 12); Highly Commended – Sam Van Leuven (Year 12); Jack Paterson (Year 12); Joseph Cranitch (Year 12)

OPEN SECTION – Winner - Ms Catherine Kidd (Science Department); Runner-up - Mr Laurie Boustead (Science Department)