Visual Arts

At the end of 2025, Year 10 art students collaborated together to create a social and politically inspired artwork exploring the strength of women. Their work reflects both the strength of collective effort and the diversity of individual perspectives and approach. Now permanently installed within SCEGGS in Nelson House, the artwork stands as a lasting reminder of our students shared creative experience and their thoughtful engagement with this theme.

Ms Dawson writes:

This large-scale collaborative work, created by the 2025 Year 10 Visual Arts classes, reimagines the Sydney Harbour Bridge through a series of individually painted panels inspired by the expressive colour and modernist style of Grace Cossington Smith. Students appropriated the iconic work “The bridge in curve” (1930) and were tasked with painting a small individual part of this work. Using Cossington Smith’s luminous palette and dynamic brushwork, the work is overlaid with fragments of poetic text woven across the panels, creating a collective narrative that is both personal and political. The text responds to the motif of the bridge and explores its potential as a connecting factor. The bridge can be seen as both signifying a sturdy physical structure and as a symbol of connection. Each student has contributed their unique visual voice and come together in a vibrant and unified composition that celebrates the power of women’s voices and community. Through their collaborative process, the bridge can be seen as a symbolic platform, connecting diverse perspectives while amplifying themes of identity, empowerment, and creative expression, transforming this iconic landmark into a powerful statement about collaboration and the enduring impact of women in art and society.

In terms of scale, this work is monumental! Paddy Molloy from the Maintenance Team had to install it in Nelson House by lifting it up one story and in via the French doors!

In other news, Ms Lilli Stromland, Old Girl (Class of 2012) tutor in the co-curricular Painting and Drawing classes and Art Assistant is about to open her latest solo show with Michael Reid Gallery Southern Highlands at Berrima. 

Lilli’s show opens on 26 March and runs until 26 April.

Lilli continues to go from strength to strength after winning the Ravenswood Women’s Art prize in 2025 (Emerging Artist category). Her latest series explores the poetics of domestic space through a confident and highly resolved painterly practice. Her works draw on everyday interiors and objects, invigorating them through a vibrant and assured use of colour. Surfaces are energised by expressive mark-making and a considered approach to composition, transforming the familiar into something both dynamic and reflective. Lilli’s practice reveals a sensitivity to the rhythms of daily life, while asserting a distinctive visual language that is at once bold, intimate and quietly compelling. Further information can be found via the gallery website.

This week’s banner is a landscape by Year 10 student Lottie Coulthard, recently submitted for her Semester 1 research task.

Heidi Jackson
Head of Visual Arts