Highlands high school students have produced brand new artworks for the alleyway next to Bowral’s Empire Cinema.
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The paintings were revealed at an opening on Thursday afternoon, October 26.
Six different artistic interpretations of the theme ‘animals’ now hang in the arcade alongside the Empire Cinema on Bong Bong Street.
Organised by property owner Gerry Kroon, students from Chevalier College, Frensham, Moss Vale High School, Oxley College, Southern Highlands Christian School and St Paul’s International College each contributed a painting toward the project.
Year 11 students MacKenzie Beets, Maggie Brown and Julia Reid from Chevalier College were selected by the schools’ head of visual arts, Bruce Wood, to paint their school’s artwork.
“I selected them because they have great painting skills as well as intellectual abilities,” Bruce Woods said.
The Chevalier HSC art students said they were proud of the final product, which was “lots of fun” to paint.
They researched both colonial and Indigenous artistic interpretations of Australian animals to inform their painting, and came up with an idea that combined the two.
“Although we wanted to include the Indigenous element in the painting, we were careful not to appropriate Aboriginal art,” Mr Woods said.
Instead, they took cues from Aboriginal artistry by incorporating red ochre into the painting.
Artist Ben Quilty also attended the event and said he thought the quality of the artwork was “fabulous”.
The paintings will hang in the arcade for the foreseeable future, until the next round of artworks is commissioned.