Wadalba Community School had four students in this year’s A Central Vision Art Exhibition held throughout March.
The exhibition was a partnership between the Department of Education and Gosford Regional Gallery, and was aimed at celebrating and showcasing the creativity of local students by displaying the best highc school student artwork from Year 7 to Year 12.
Charlotte Coleman, who completed her HSC in 2020, presented a collection of photographs that were part of her major project and inspired by her background in dance.
“The photographic collage, titled Ballet Body, explores the reality of ballet and ballet dancers, the part that is concealed,” Coleman said.
“The confronting images of a ballerina’s slender body with angular bones and discoloured skin are supposed to make the audience cringe and feel somewhat repulsed.
“Shot in a home studio with a single light source, the dim and contrasted photographs create an edge and unsettled sense of another world.”
Coleman said it took months of planning and development to create the collage.
Year 8 students, Sophie Palesy and Ella Mitchell, presented watercolour paintings in the exhibition with Palesy creating a watercolour of a galah and Mitchell painting an abstract self-portrait.
“My piece was largely driven by colour, trying to use analogue colours to create a particular mood or feeling,” Mitchell said.
Year 9 student, Kaylen Cogoi, presented a watercolour of a budgerigar, and said that both he and Mitchell were inspired by the works of Grotti Lotti.
“We were looking at the work of artist Grotti Lotti and I was drawn to her paintings of budgies,” Cogoi said.
Both Mitchell and Cogoi said that their paintings took about two hours to make, with Mitchell creating hers in her Art Enrichment class and Cogoi making his in an extracurricular art interest workshop.
“Our school has entered and been selected in A Central Vision multiple times over the past years, and this year we are very proud to have four students selected,” said Creative and Performing Arts Head Teacher, Janelle Johnson.
The artworks created by students are developed in class under the direction of their teachers, with the teachers introducing different artists and art styles to help them develop their concept for the final product.
“The school community is very proud of the creativity and efforts of our students who have worked diligently to create these artworks,” Johnson said.
“I’m really happy about it, I was super excited when I found out,” said Mitchell, about being included in the exhibition.
“I was surprised to find that my schoolwork is good enough for a gallery,” Cogoi said.
Harry Mulholland