Where are they now?
The OGA 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 each year. Much of the artwork displayed within our School today has been acquired through this award. We recently caught up with some of our previous Award Winners to find out what they are doing now.
Renee Parnell Renee Parnell (98) considers herself a plate spinner (keeping lots of things spinning simultaneously), and there is no doubt that is exactly what she is. After finishing school, Renee completed a degree in Interior Architecture and worked on projects such as the Fiona Stanley Hospital. She was then recruited by Curtin University and was involved in rewriting curriculums, teaching and then moved into research. Renee is currently working in Missions Connect’s research team, which is developing virtual reality models of former Aboriginal Mission sites in partnership with Stolen Generation Survivors. Renee also has her own creative business that runs workshops for adults and children in printmaking and various creative techniques, alongside her own bespoke printmaking product range stocked at several locations across Western Australia.
“I am happiest when I am creating and I am lucky enough to have multiple jobs that allow me to exercise my creativity in different ways and to help others flex their creative muscle and develop their skills, which brings me a lot of joy,” explains Renee. Renee recalls the Art Centre at Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School as her second home. “Being a boarding student, I remember spending a lot of time at the Art Centre on the weekends working on my TEE projects. It was like having my own private art studio, a quiet place to retreat, turn up some Triple J and lose track of time.” “I remember walking into the art studio one day to find a giant windsurfing board suspended from the rafters in the middle of the room. This was to be our first observational drawing subject using oil pastels, and to my surprise it was my drawing that won the Acquisition Award.”
It was the first piece of art that Renee had ever sold, but it was not her last. Renee had four exhibitions last year, the last of which at Moores Gallery in Fremantle sold well beyond her wildest expectations. Renee Parnell :: OGA Art Acquisition Award Recipient 1997
