Wooragee artist Catherine Stewart tore pages from an old, yellowed dictionary for use in a student workshop at Trinity Anglican College.

Stewart, the feature artist in the school’s annual art show next month, said she liked incorporating rustic materials.

“I use them in collage works and sometimes in paintings but it’s subtle and you don’t necessarily know they’re there,” she said.

“I try and link the book pages with the subjects, so if I’m doing a work on birds then I’ll try and link the pages of an old bird book with that bird.”

Stewart will be one of 60 artists from the Border and North East, Leeton, South Yarra and Wagga taking part in the fifth annual Trinity Anglican College Art Exhibition and Acquisitive Art Award, September 8-10.

The exhibition’s opening evening will include the announcement of a $2000 acquisitive art award, $800 regional artist prize and $300 small space award.

Stewart, who has exhibited at the show in previous years, said she appreciated the opportunity to be feature artist.

“It’s a great chance for the local community to get to know me a little more because I’m fairly new to the region,” she said.

Part of her role involves sharing her skills with Trinity groups like the year 11 visual arts students who have started to plan their HSC works.

“I was hoping that they would use some mediums that were unfamiliar to them and become a little bit more confident and then maybe take it a bit further,” Stewart said. “Teaching them to layer work, thinking about composition, contrast and how to combine more than three mediums at a time to make a more unique finish.”

Trinity head of creative and performing arts Sarah Bradbury said Stewart’s visit allowed the students to see a professional artist in action.

“She’s got great knowledge and understanding of how to get the best work out of kids,” Ms Bradbury said.

“Understanding composition underpins all arts, so they can all take something from an activity like this.”

Stewart said the students did well, showing creativity and good listening skills.

“It often gets hard to condense quite a lot of information in one session but they did a beautiful job,” she said.