The Old Grammarians’ Association Art Acquisition Award is a prestigious monetary prize which has been awarded since 1990. This Award allows an outstanding piece of student artwork to be acquired for the School Art Collection. Much of the artwork displayed within our School today has been acquired through this award. Students in Years 11 and 12 are encouraged to submit artwork for selection each year.
In 2021, the OGA Art Acquisition Award was given to Year 12 student, Claire Linaker. Since graduating from Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School last year, Claire has started studying Fashion Design at Curtin University in Perth. Claire hopes to one day become a fashion designer and start her own sustainable up-cycling brand.
Claire was thrilled to win the OGA Art Acquisition Award last year for her painting of her dog and her sister. “I wanted to show the importance of animals and how they are so important for our mental health and how we are so important to them.”
Artist Statement:
This is a story about the connection between a dog and his humans. My main influence was the dog featured in the diptych, who has a lot of meaning to my family. He has helped a lot with our troubles by showing his affection and unconditional love, in particular, he has been instrumental in helping my sister through her long struggle with anorexia and depression. Whenever she was feeling bad, he could sense it and came to comfort her. This part of my sister and my families’ lives was also a major influence for me. The green top seen portrayed in both paintings symbolises the connection between the dog and his humans. I chose to paint this because whenever a family member left the house, our dog would take a piece of our clothing, like a security blanket. When we return, he would bring the clothing back to us. The green top represents the love that we also bring our pets.
Robert Bootier paints amazing realistic artworks of his dogs. His influence can be seen by the realistic painterly style such as the textural detail of the dog and furniture, also the folds and patterns in the clothing and surrounding fabric. The soft colours such as brown, grey, greens and soft pinks give the painting a calm feeling. The techniques I used to create this painting help support the message of love. I used delicate, gestural brush strokes of acrylic paint to paint the fur on the dog, enhancing the feeling of calmness and softness that these paintings portray. This painting is directed at people with pets and without. I want people to understand the importance of animals in their lives when they look at my paintings, and I want them to understand that loving animals can help us all through hard times in a huge way that sometimes is not understood.
