Teens were invited to make the most of their school holidays at the Inverell Art Gallery on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

“It’s something to do, and it’s nice to create something,” Jacob Pierce said. He enjoyed creating a collage using an image of Marilyn Monroe surrounded by a swirl of purple and blue. “I’ve never really learned about it (collages) before,” he said.

Led by local artist Carolyn McCosker, the workshops were part of the Youth Opportunities Program, co-funded by the NSW government and Inverell Council. 

It was a flexible workshop. Julia Drew embraced the pop art look with her painting of lips surrounded by magazine cutouts, lettering and layers of paint; while Coen Craigie shared his Aboriginal culture with a traditional dot painting telling the story of many tribes meeting together.

Mackenzie Holzigal shared her love of Eminem with a portrait surrounded by lightning strikes and Karene Robinson created a colourful collage with a mix of country and city images taken from magazines. 

“I like to see people develop their own ideas and their own skills. I see my job as giving background support,” Ms McCosker said. 

She shared her own mixed media and collage techniques, encouraging the children to create small ‘soul cards’ expressing their self journeys with images and text from magazines. The group explored key phrases like ‘I think’ and ‘I want’ as inspiration. “It’s interesting to see what everybody comes up with.” Ms McCosker said.