Student artwork on display in Alice gallery 

 
 
Visual Arts student Heather Romeo works on her silkscreen work “Grevillea”

The work of about 100 Charles Darwin University art students will go on display at Witchetty’s in the Araluen art precinct in Alice Springs this weekend.

The “Artopia 87” end-of-year exhibition will feature an eclectic collection of works by visual arts students, including paintings, drawings, ceramics, textiles, sculptures and screen prints.

Lecturer Suzi Lyon said: “We try to include at least one work from everyone who had studied art at CDU this year.

“Apart from the urban students, we’ve taken our courses to a lot of remote students, so there would be well over 100 people who studied with us this year.”

Among the works is “Grevillea”, a fabric screen print by long-time Central Australian Heather Romeo, who has been studying for a Certificate IV in Visual Arts.

Her inspiration began with a photo of a grevillea growing in her garden at home.

A digital imaging program was used to remove the background and from that a photo emulsion silk-screen stencil was developed.

Using silk-screening techniques, Mrs Romeo printed the design on fabric to create a graceful piece of textile.

“I’m going to give it to my grand-daughter, who’s studying design,” Mrs Romeo said.

“It will be interesting to see how she re-interprets the original idea.

“It was a fabulous course and I loved every minute of it.”

Artopia 87 will be opened at 4.30pm on Saturday 1 December by Vocational and Education Team Leader Carole Buck. The exhibition will be open from 10am-4pm daily from 2-7 December.