Juliette Wegdam
Juliette Wegdam grew up in The Netherlands where she obtained two Bachelor Degrees (Fine Arts and Art & Management). She has been teaching art at secondary schools for 15 years.
Five years ago Juliette migrated with her family from the Netherlands to Australia. Having a fresh start in Melbourne resulted in exploring the city, its artworks, galleries and musea and discovering beautiful spots in Bayside and Melbourne.
In her art she likes to combine techniques and materials. Painting, printing, collage etc. Experimenting with materials and exploring ideas. Very often she finds materials on the nature strip or at op shops and uses it in her artwork. She is inspired by artists like Edward Hopper, Picasso, Dali, Morandi, Rauschenberg and Australian artists like Rosalie Gascoigne, Brett Whitley and many others.
She has been teaching at Beaumaris Art Group for 1,5 years. In her classes she tries to offer different subjects each term. This way the students will learn about various aspects of art. Whether it is “Escape in the landscape” were students explore the outdoors or “clair/obscure” where students study the light and perspective indoors. The Australian Pop Art course had amazing results and showcased a group exhibition last year. In “model composition” participants in the course studied life-models in a huge still-lifes. “Poem express” is based on picturing a poem using your fantasy.
One of her favorite techniques is printing. Juliette brought her own etching press to be able to run creative printing classes and use it for linocuts, collagraphs and drypoint etching. Next to that she teaches silkscreen printing as well. Sometimes she organizes visits to galleries or exhibitions which can be inspirations for the people in her courses. It is nice to visit exhibitions together and talk about the displayed artworks.
Next to teaching at BAG Juliette also teaches art at secondary and primary schools in this region.