That Wesley’s art department has ‘no house style’ is a badge of honour for the visual art students and their teachers at the St Kilda Road Campus. The comment was made at the opening of this year’s Graduate Art Exhibition in October by judge Sarah Tomasetti, visual artist and Studio Lead of Painting at RMIT University, when she was speaking about the range and diversity of voices on show.
 Amy’s prize-winning work ‘Waiting for the tram’ |  Ava received an Encouragement Award for ‘Tea Party' |
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‘I can see the quality of the art teaching at Wesley College,’ she said, ‘because there is no house style: each student has been encouraged towards developing an authentic voice and visual language. When there is a rich variation in the approaches that have been taken, we can see the hard work of the art teachers and technicians who have supported the students to take risks and trust themselves.’
The Art Acquisition Prize went to Year 12 student Amy for her painting: ‘Waiting for the Tram’. ‘This is a very arresting painting, and it has the quality of the film still, which is not easy to achieve in a still image,’ said Sarah. ‘The figure looks as though she has just stepped into the frame and might be just about to step out. Precision and lightness of touch characterise this winning work.’
A full house of students, parents, friends, staff and guests admired the work generated by 72 students from a range of subjects, including VCE Art Creative Practice, Visual Communication Design and Media and the IB Diploma Program Visual Arts and Film subjects. The exhibition opening was followed by ‘Wesley On Screen’, a showcase of films, documentaries, music videos and animations by IB Film and VCE Media students.
‘Wesley College deserves its strong reputation for visual arts which is recognised at a tertiary level,’ said Sarah. ‘This exhibition exemplifies that reputation.’
