Visual Arts – Painting and Drawing
Introducing the Visual Arts – Painting and Drawing winners of our first ever Sydney Catholic Schools’ Lockdown Arts Festival.
The creative flair of our category winners and highly commended artists – including the creators’ descriptions of their own work – is sure to inspire.
Early Primary (K-2)
School: Holy Family Catholic Primary School, Menai
Title: I can’t wait!
Chloe Hill is 6 years old and looking forward to life beyond Lockdown. This artwork is a picture of Chloe wearing her mask in lockdown and she is surrounded by all the things she is looking forward to when lockdown is over!
School: St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School, Marsfield
Title: Flying Colours
I am Aaron Huang, currently a kindergarten student from St Anthony’s Catholic Primary School Marsfield. My submission is about travelling around the world and connecting with each other after lockdown. The mask that the Earth is wearing has been cut to symbolise freedom and no more coronavirus. I am good at origami, so I made paper aeroplanes and put cotton balls as clouds to add a 3D effect to the artwork.
School: St Therese Catholic Primary School, Padstow
Title: Masking Up
Estelle is a 5yo student who created the colouring of herself portrait wearing a mask pop art style. She loves solid colours which she incorporated in this piece.
Middle Primary (3-4)
School: St Therese Catholic Primary School, Denistone
Title: Hold My Hand
Now that we have lived a life that we have never thought of, we need faith and love to bring everything back to normal. At the end of lockdown, I want to take care of what I love, like nature, animals, my beloved family and friends to get through this difficult time.
School: St Christopher’s Catholic Primary School, Panania
Title: When Chaos meets Hope
My dad did artwork 1 named ‘Chaos’ – He describes the artwork as experiencing chaos in times of hardship and uncertainty during these unprecedented times we are all experiencing in our own way. My artwork 2 is named ‘Hope Lives Here’- I have chosen to use a bright backdrop to represent coming out of lockdown. I want my painting to bring people joy and hope as even in uncertain times no-one can take this away from you. I included a dove as a sign of peace, hope and faith. My mum helped me with the outline of the dove and bird a little.
School: St Francis Xavier’s Catholic Primary School, Arncliffe
Title: Moments until dusk
I composed this artwork when we were in lockdown. All I could think about it going down to the beach and watching the sunset with my family in Fiji. I would look outside my window dreaming of the day. This artwork represents my holidays that I am looking forward to going on soon.
School: McAuley Catholic Primary School, Rose Bay
Title: Lockdown??
Thoughts about lockdown. With so many uncertainties around me it is hard not to feel overwhelmed. Drawing is a way of sorting through all the noise and disturbance to what my life is usually like. Being creative allows me to calm the storm inside my head.
Upper Primary (5-6)
School: Holy Spirit Catholic Primary School, Carnes Hill
Title: Outbreak of Realisation
My picture is about realising that we should not take advantage of our health and that we should be thankful for those people who are helping us stay alive.
School: St Christopher’s Catholic Primary School, Panania
Title: The Freedom of Imagination
My digital drawing tells the story of a girl, not unlike myself, who reads during lockdown. As she reads, her imagination comes to life, leading her into the world of the book. During lockdown, I looked outward by reading, and I used those feelings of hope as an inspiration for my artwork. The freedom of imagination is inspired by the freedom that we will all feel when this trying time draws to a close.
School: Our Lady of Mt Carmel Catholic Primary School, Mt Pritchard
Title: The Air of Freedom
My submission was more inspired on how I would feel when lockdown was finally finished. I tried to make the art have different colour palettes on each side, the left side meaning freedom, happiness and joy while the right side was supposed to be more dull and miserable. When I thought of freedom I thought of greenery and flowers, since we stayed indoors for most of this year and wasn’t able to experience much nature.
School: Holy Spirit Catholic Primary School, North Ryde
Title: Trapped from Treasures
My name is Angelina Severino and I am 11. I came up with the idea to do this because lockdown isn’t called LOCKdown for nothing. For many months now I have been locked inside and being kept away from the things I love most, the beautiful nature. This picture is just like my new everyday life where I am unable to visit stunning places that keep me in awe and all I can do is see through tiny cracks and windows of my house to see the wonders of the environment around me.
Lower Secondary (7-9)
School: Our Lady of the Sacred Heart College, Kensington
Title: Open Mind
This artwork represents having an open, positive mind after lockdown. After the struggles of the past two years, people have closed themselves off from the outside world, making it necessary, no matter how difficult, to open up again, and readapt ourselves in order to cope with change. The sun represents letting the light back in and a new beginning. The girls is crying because in some ways she has enjoyed the peacefulness of lockdown but is also celebrating her freedom. Artwork by Zoe Jones, Year 8.
School: St Patrick’s College, Sutherland
Title: Headspace
My name is Hamish, I am 15 and love art and creativity as a whole. Originally, this drawing was inspired by my own thoughts especially during lockdown. I can recall walking around a park and glancing to the sky thinking about what I’d like to do once life resumes.
School: De La Salle College, Revesby Heights
Title: Soon
My name is Jayden Le, I’m 14 years old and this artwork was painted with acrylic paint and goes under this years theme, ‘Looking Outwards From A Life In Lockdown’. I’ve taken inspiration from the art style ‘surrealism’ because of its dream-like style. This artwork shows a Lockdown and outside perspective. I’ve used different tones of colours to show emotion. Dark being very dull and sad and bright being joyful. During this time in Lockdown, I felt trapped and locked inside. I felt sort of depressed. That is why I chose to paint jail bars, to represent how confined and sad I felt, just like sitting in an isolated jail cell. A red clock is shown at the bottom left corner and illustrates how we have been in Lockdown for a very long time. Alongside it is a rock shaped like my head, representing how stuck I feel, just like a rock. I can be seen looking up, looking up at what I hope for, ‘Freedom’. By painting a corner folded page, I was able to make the bars turn into branches. The leaves, twigs, and sun make up an eye and symbolises looking outward into the beauty of outside.
School: Bethlehem College, Ashfield
Title: Kicking Covid
My artwork represents how we as a society are overcoming Covid 19 and all the things that we would like to disappear. Inside the ball captures images and symbols of what life in Covid looks like and what we wish was gone. Therefore, I am kicking that ball away and the colour is an embalm of us doing our best to overcome this situation.
Upper Secondary (10-12)
School: Bethlehem College, Ashfield
Title: Friends Reunion
Through the theme ‘Looking outwards from a life in lockdown’, I decided on the idea of painting an image of my friends to capture what many people have been longing for, a reunion. This acrylic painting specifically highlights a memorable event with my friends before lockdown, a celebration at the end of Year 10. However, I added masks in this painting to represent life after lockdown when reuniting again. It acts as a symbol to convey that life after lockdown does not mean that we forget about all the restrictions, boundaries and hygienic behaviour/practices. Meaning, although this painting captures the desire for a reunion, it reinforces the reality of safe practices that will need to be ingrained in our lives. My friends were my biggest inspiration in composing this piece, due to the special bond we have developed over our years in high school. The purple background symbolises my school, Bethlehem College representing a loving school community that has supported each other through lockdown. Covid may have led us to separate from each other physically during our final years of high school, which is unfortunate… Nevertheless, our sisterhood will always be unbreakable.
School: All Saints Catholic College, Liverpool – Casula
Title: Yr 11 Photography Class
In year 11 my photography teacher would take us to the bushy area next to the campus to take photos. I decided to capture this moment with some of my classmates in acrylic paint.
School: Mount Saint Joseph Catholic College, Milperra
Title: The Sheep Yard
Standing in front of the sheep yard, Burt McMahon, an Aussie inspiration.
School: De La Salle Cronulla
Title: Portrait of Mum
In Lockdown we were studying the Archibald Prize. I made this portrait of my Mum even though we didn’t have many art materials in the house. I was lucky enough to find some old colouring pencils.
Primary Class
School: St Andrew’s Catholic Primary School, Malabar
Title: Life is Looking Like
Year 4 Newman Art students came together to interpret what they believe life will look like out of lockdown through their own eyes. Students interpretation are as follows: Gabriella T “Back to sport”, Jakob B “Camping fun”, Isabella T “Aquarium excursion” , Oliver T “Exploring Sydney”, Charlie A “Water world- Theme parks”, Charli M “Amusement park”, Marcus N “Zoo exploration”, Hayden N “Birthday parties”, Erin R “Catching waves”, Catherine S “back to school”, Eva B “Public transport”, Ruby L “Overseas holidays.”
School: St Vincent’s Catholic Primary School, Ashfield
Title: Fibonacci Lockdown
The students in the Maths Olympiad class were studying the Fibonacci sequence and golden ratio. Some of the students were keen to use the sequence to interpret what they were missing during lockdown. It is a combination of drawings and photography and collage making.
Staff Member or Group
School: St Patrick’s Catholic Primary School, Sutherland
Title: Take a Seat
The inspiration of painting The Chair came from the lockdown, the uncertainty of future, the confusion of moving forward… then one day I sat on This Chair. It allowed me to weep, it allowed me to rest… It gave me life, singing “colour me with sunshine by Pink” as I painted This Chair allowed me to seek Hope and experience HIS presence. The Chair is accompanied with a poem I wrote “Take a Seat.”
School: Our Lady Queen of Peace Catholic Primary School, Gladesville
Title: Coming out of the Shadows
During lockdown I have tried to teach myself to paint. I discovered alcohol inks which are very fluid and I have been learning how to create with this medium. I have discovered how to paint flowers and over time have improved. This beautiful sunflower vignette represents coming out of the shadows into all that is wonderful in God’s world and gives me hope that we are going to come out stronger. This is my own original work painted on a ceramic wall tile.
School: Holy Spirit Catholic Primary School, Carnes Hill
Title: Emergence
My artwork titled EMERGENCE, is an acrylic on canvas. It represents society’s feelings of despair, confusion, chaos and loneliness during lockdown. However, on a positive note, it also portrays how society will undoubtedly emerge back to normality after what we have been through.
Our emergence back into society, after a time spent in a bubble, represented in the background and the circles filled with chaotic lines, will be slow and unclear; this symbolised further, by the painting technique used – faded lines and blended colours. But for us, who have faith, we will persevere and get back to what we love doing and this is symbolised by the portrait of a woman, transparent but strong. People will follow, as seen by the emerging black figures in the painting’s background following paths, perhaps led by others, perhaps led by Our Lord, whatever the case, we will get there. We will emerge from a life in lockdown and feel safe and secure in our world, once again.
Family Submission
School: St Gertrude’s Catholic Primary School, Smithfield
Title: Moments that Define
The drawing has been created from a selfie taken by my uncle in 2020 at my cousin’s wedding. In the drawing there is three figure – my uncle, my cousin and me. I decided to draw this image as I believe that the moments in our life define us in a certain way. During lockdown I looked back into my life, outwards towards the people that I have been blessed with and have helped me grow to become the woman I am today, and that will continue to nurture my life. In this difficult but also important time of lockdown it has been essential for me to look out at all I have and live in the present, giving thanks to God for the gifts I have received. I have looked at myself, my life to be able to live this lockdown with peace and happiness by coming out of my comfort and help others.
School: Fr John Therry Catholic Primary School, Balmain / Rozelle
Title: A Moment in Time
Astrid Battaglia is a mother of two school aged children. This sketch depicts her daughters during the height of the COVID pandemic, looking out from behind their face masks at the uncertainty surrounding them and their community.