Art Encounter Days give our Visual Art and Design students the opportunity to participate in specialist workshops with highly acclaimed Western Australian artists. There are two of these days held each year.

Artists are selected to facilitate these workshops based on the skill set they can deliver to the girls on the day. In choosing artists, the Visual Arts team aim for variety. During the time these Art Encounter days have been running, there have been portrait and still life oil painters, jewellers, printmakers, illustrators, ceramicists and photographers. The workshops have even been taken off campus, with the hire of a photographic studio for design students to partake in a creative styling workshop with Teagan Sewell and model Sarah Tilleke.

Artists have included Leanne Pearson, Rachelle Dusting, Alister Yiap, Susanna Castelden, Amanda Shelsher, Ines Pandzic, Andy Quilty, Aidan Lee Smith and most recently Wade Taylor.

Wade Taylor was the guest artist at the Art Encounter Day held at the College, last weekend. As Year 12 Visual Arts and Design students have been studying American painter Edward Hopper, Wade was the perfect facilitator as he is a master of creating shadows, playing with light and colour and painting landscapes.

After two hours of colour mixing and theory in oils, the girls had four hours to complete a ‘wet on wet’ oil painting, employing very different techniques and processes. Most works were either finished or very close to, with some stunning results. Because the girls had to work quickly, the resulting paintings were very fresh, free and loose in their style, a refreshing change from devoting weeks and weeks to one particular work. They learnt so much from the experience as did the Visual Arts staff.

Year 12 student Aubrey Basuki, said “I enjoyed the whole painting process from start to end. Working with oils was tricky, and it was quite the rush to complete a large painting in a short amount of time, especially on a wet base, but the double challenge was enjoyable. Out of the whole experience, I gained more knowledge about colour theory and mixing oil paints, which was neat.”