THE 2020 graduating exhibition of Canberra Institute of Technology Visual Arts students was short-lived, but once again demonstrated the advantages of a totally hand-on approach to art-making.

Highlights of the show held in the DesignSpace gallery and courtyard at Reid CIT Campus included the eye-catching central feature, diploma-student Maylan Gilbert’s giant, armoured eagle “Dyiraany Lord Space Marine”, which combines Warhammer aesthetics with his own First Nation background.

Elsewhere, the pandemic, the bushfires and our natural environment were on artists’ minds, with Girish Toraskar’s “112 days”, acrylic and three perspective sheets and plaster sculpture inspired by the second wave of COVID-19 in Victoria and Julie De Carlo’s orange linocut landscapes capturing the hills surrounding Canberra reflecting intense heat and loss and, in a contrasting, blue series, solidarity in in the community.

Peta J Scott’s acrylic on canvas polyptych of inter-changeable abstract landscapes, “Spiritus Vitae”, reflects the constant renewal of suburban gardens in response to seasonal changes.

I caught up with two of the prize-winning artists Sally Black, who won the NAVA (National Association for the Visual Arts) Ignition award and Akka Ballenger Constantin, winner of Craft ACT’s Emerging Contemporaries Prize, on the side of the exhibition over the weekend.

Black, whose NAVA win offers her professional membership of the key organisation for 12 months, is an ex-teacher who has been painting watercolours for a long time, but eventually decided to take up art full-time. She praises the painting, printmaking and drawing in the foundation diploma course courses at CIT as “very hands-on, very practical—they teach all the skills”.

A dedicated watercolour artist, she was impressed when a teacher suggested using the techniques of monoprint, resulting in her experimental monoprint series, “Push and Pull”, which celebrates the Canberra regional landscape.

Black has harnessed the unpredictable process of monoprint to make vibrant representations of the world around her and hopes to seek short courses, residencies and mentorships to further her practice.

Ballenger Constantin’s extraordinary leaf installations, inscribed with images of native fauna, have the look of ceramics and were achieved through considerable experimentation. Starting up with real green leaves, she inscribed them with “Inktense” pencils where the “lead” turns into ink once in contact with water. After building more detail onto the leaves, she eventually coated them with resin.

“I’m sure I’m not the only one to do this kind of work, but I haven’t seen other people do it,” she said.

Her prize-winning work, “The Lost Ark”, focuses on the aftermath of the 2019 to 2020 bushfires and their impact on Australian fauna, so 10 per cent of her works will go on sale to ACT Wildlife and Wild Talk.

An art educator who works with young children, Ballenger Constantin likes experimenting with chemical processes related to pigmentation and has enthralled the kid by mixing safe substances like red cabbage and purple juice with vinegar to change colours.

“It’s been a really tough year for our students, and they’ve done amazingly well to be nearing completion of their courses,” CIT lecturer, Bernie Slater, says.

“I’m really proud of the work they’ve put in and the positive attitude displayed by all students.”