One large painting flanked by two smaller paintings of a watery scene with a red-haired female figure.

Riverside Girls High School

Elixir Vitae

Painting, oil on canvas

Inspired by the Romantic movement, sublime philosophy and personal experience, this work exhibits the ineffable and healing qualities of the natural world and the revealing repetition of this motif throughout art history. The influence of artist Caspar David Fredrick is present, replicating his evocation of an enigmatic mood and presenting human fragility in contrast to the sublime natural world. Employment of the senses, natural symbolic allegory and mythological allusion call to ideas of nourishment, human identity, rebirth and return. Finally, techniques of traditional Flemish painting were used to emphasize the repetitive, timeless and universal quality of these notions.

An artistic orange brushstroke design forms abstract shapes on a white background. Overlaid on the design is the word "artexpress" in a sleek, modern black font. The orange brush strokes appear dynamic and free-flowing, with splatters and tapered ends.Simplified waratah flower in deep red colour with the words NSW Government in dark blue stacked underneath.

ARTEXPRESS is a joint partnership between The New South Wales Department of Education and NSW Education Standards Authority in association with Hazelhurst Arts Centre.