By Callum Ludwig
Talented former Mount Evelyn Christian College student Holly Sharman will be celebrated in an exhibition at the Heaesville Memo this month, congratulating the achievements of herself and other students creating masterpieces in a challenging year of schooling.
Ms Sharman knew she always wanted the theme of her final piece to be relationships, and the restrictions due to Covid-19 lockdowns through her VCE period inspired her decision to revolve the piece around her beloved grandparents.
“I’m very much a family person. I don’t think I saw them for maybe a year or something when we were in lockdown. So it was important I got to draw this for them.” she said.
“It was also a surprise, so they didn’t know I was doing it until it was finished, which was really lovely.”
The family theme won’t stop there for Ms Sharman, who wishes to extend her portfolio of family portraits in future.
“People are definitely my favourite subject matter. I’ve always liked to draw portraits,” she said.
“Hopefully one day I’ll make a massive portrait of myself and my whole family.”
Ms Sharman’s primary medium for her artwork was graphite pencil, while she also experimented with graphite powder, water soluble graphite and a bit of painting before returning to the pencil as her favoured tool.
Honoured to have her artwork featured in the Createive Showcase, Ms Sharman felt it granted a sense of achievement, for herself and the other students whose works are on display.
“Having people recognise the hard work put into it makes me fell really good about an outcome I’m really happy with,” she said.
“It’s also really nice this exhibition is free and you can see all the other amazing VCE artworks other people completed at the same time as me.”
In the future, Ms Sharman will be completing a health science degree, preferring for her art to remain a hobby and a passion.
Her advice to VCE students of 2022 and beyond is that art and the themes you can explore are fun and the possibilities are endless.
“Definitely choose a really broad theme, because then you can make it whatever you want by the end, often you change your mind,” she said.
Ms Sharman is part of 31 VCE and VCAL 2021 students from around the Yarra Ranges who have been given the opportunity to have their artwork displayed in the 2022’s Creative Showcase at The Memo in Healesville.
The exhibition is open from Friday 4 February through to Sunday 27 February, hosted by the Yarra Ranges Council in collaboration with Burrinja Cultural Centre.
