Visual Arts

National Art School HSC Intensive Course Recipients 2023

We are very proud to announce that three Year 11 students, Sophia Chu, Hannah Guest and Astrid Hooper have been accepted into the National Art School HSC Intensive Course for 2023. This is a significant achievement as entry into this program is highly competitive and draws from across the State for a limited number of placements. The National Art School stated that they had a particularly high calibre of applications this year so for SCEGGS to have three students accepted is outstanding.

We very much look forward to seeing the work they develop during their experience.

Please join me in congratulating Sophia, Hannah and Astrid. Well done!

Archibald Exhibition Excursion 2023

In Week 5 I had the pleasure of taking my Year 7 Art class to visit the Archibald Exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW. The students were very engaged and excited by the work on display, paying careful attention to the diversity of approaches to portraiture, having spent the last few months working on a range of their own portraits in class. Along with seeing the magnificent collection of portraits submitted for the main prize, the other highlight of the excursion was viewing the Young Archies exhibition, and especially seeing the impressive portrait of Ms Allum by Imogen Zimmerle (Year 10). The students were proud and amazed by her submission, and many were empowered by seeing the work of so many young artists publicly displayed at the Art Gallery. Perhaps they too will be inspired to make their own submissions in the future?

Louise Willems
Visual Arts Teacher

Below are some reflections from Year 7 about this experience:

The Archibald was a very inspiring experience, all the different age ranges and types of portraits. The painting I thought was my favourite was the Archie Roach large scale size painting. And it was wonderful to see one of the girls representing our School!

– Emmanuelle Zaki

Going to the Archibald was so fun and exciting! The artworks were so impressive and it was very joyful seeing all the pieces with friends. It was a great experience and very enlightening to explore all the hidden meaning of the pieces.

– Flora Balagna

Really interesting to walk with a friend and talk about the pictures, making inferences from our knowledge. It was fun to be out of the school in school uniform!

– Anastasiia Prokopchuk

I really liked the portrait by the Year 10 SCEGGS girl of Ms Allum. It showed realistic features and a warm sense of comfort. There was also a movie about Aboriginal rights which was fun to see how people interpret art.

– Luella Elliott

Some of the artworks I saw were created by people my age. That was really inspiring for me. I found it interesting how many different styles of artworks there were. Some were abstract and some were really realistic. I think it is amazing how many different types of artworks there were at the Art Gallery.

– Samantha Cutbush

What I found interesting was how there was a section which featured artworks from young people our age and all of them were amazing! I also really liked the artwork of Ms Allum because it was interesting that it was made from someone at SCEGGS.

– Alexandra Nguyen

I loved going to the Archibald because it was really interesting to see the important people that the artists painted and how they thought to capture their essence. It was really fun to look around with my friends and hear their opinions too.

– Sophie Downes

Realistic, unique and different are all words to describe the calibre of the artworks at Sydney’s annual Archibald prize. Varying techniques were used in each and every artwork that enhanced our perspective of the artwork and it’s meaning. A truly incredible experience.

– Lucia Buchanan

I really appreciated and enjoyed the amount of artworks that were based on dads in the little Archibald section. It’s such a cute way of recognising their dads, especially as a fathers-day gift.

-Abby Sparks

The Archibald exhibition had many different styles and kinds of painting. Some used different materials and others were painted on really small scale or really large scale. The poses and settings of the paintings made them all really unique and I really enjoyed looking at all the different portraits.

– Adison Lewis

I enjoyed seeing the difference in the paintings. Some were realistic and some were abstract. I really liked seeing the young Archie, because I got to see the talented artists, around my age. The bright and vivid colours in some of the paintings contrasted well together.

– Radha Bhindi

I was proud of looking at these fantastic works! What stood out to me were Aboriginal super women and really cool fluoro artworks.

– Lottie Coulthard

The range of different styles that were reflected in the artist’s work were incredible. My favourite one was of (rugby league star) Latrell Mitchell because it shows both sides of him; professional and then spending time with family.

– Sophia Carroll

We look forward to taking all Year 7 Visual Arts students to the Archibald Prize over the next week or so.

And just in case you missed it, here is the portrait students were referring to of Ms Allum by Imogen Zimmerle (Year 10).

This week’s banner is a work from Year 10 student Zoe Crisafulli.

Heidi Jackson
Head of Visual Arts