A De La Salle College Cronulla student has won first prize in a prestigious religious art competition.
Laurah Tapas won the 2020 Clancy Prize for religious artwork for her evocative triple portrait of her family, netting her $2000 prize money.
The Clancy Prize is awarded annually and is open to all Sydney Catholic Schools secondary students. The artworks must be of a religious or sacred nature and are based on a theme each year. This year's theme was "family love".
Laurah responded with a portrait of her parents and brother, Komet, which she entitled The Family.
She worked on hessian with acrylic paint, depicting each family member wearing a T-shirt in their favourite colour.
The family migrated from Papua New Guinea in 2003, and she said the artwork aimed to capture the close bonds of traditional family life in New Guinea and how that continued in today's culturally diverse Australian society.
She said it celebrated the simple pleasures of family life and the importance of family support in migrant communities.
"Like many migrant communities in Australia, the family plays an important role as a support group," she said.
"This is especially true of our Papua New Guinea community, which is small in numbers.
"It is always refreshing but also a startling contrast when we go and visit our extended family in their villages in Lae and Manus.
"In the village, the church is the centre of our community life and the glue that binds us - another contrast to life in secular Australia."
It wasn't the only win for the school, with the second place Brian Jordan Prize awarded to another year 12 De La Salle College Cronulla student, Jessica Gledhill, who won $1000.
Jessica produced two artworks inspired by the 'Me Too' movement, which depicts women who survived emotionally testing relationships with the artist, Picasso.
She said they celebrate the strength of women who make a sacrifice in difficult family relationships.
The school's visual arts head teacher Byron Hurst won the Clancy Prize for art teachers but chose to donate his prize money towards a scholarship for young art teachers.
The winning works were displayed at the McGlade Gallery at the Australian Catholic University, Strathfield.