• Jill with her self portrait at the 2023 Archibald Prize.
Our Jill Ansell is again an Archibald Prize finalist – here’s a message from Marie-Anne Keefe Department of Education Director Communications …
• Just Scratching the Surface
The talents of our teachers never cease to amaze – I am not sure what’s in the water in Freo, but our latest star works for Fremantle Fast Track at our North Lake Senior Campus. You’ll remember this year’s winner of the Women of Achievement Award, Dr Antoinette Morris, who heads the program. Well, now inspirational art specialist Jill Ansell is making headlines for becoming a WA finalist, for the second year running no less, in Australia’s most prestigious painting competition, the Archibald Prize. No one from WA has ever won it and Jill is the only artist from our state to make the finals this year. Her stunning work is of another prominent Western Australian artist, Leon Pericles, entitled Just Scratching the Surface. Instead of being a huge oil on canvas, her creation is ingeniously assembled in a tiny old tobacco tin, measuring 10 cm by 16 cm! The winner will be announced at the end of this week. Jill, we wish you well and just know you are extraordinary in our eyes.