Traditional Prize: $250 No. 57 "Nick" by Xavier Ghazi
Contemporary Prize: $250 No. 77 "Along the Cooks River" by Daniela Costallo (Sold)
Works-On-Paper Prize: $250 No. 21 "Southern Grey Sands" by Brian Stratton
Ceramics Prize: $250 No.62 "Ceramic Sculpture" by Selma Fida
Traditional Highly Commended: No 15 "Lemons and Butterfies" by Natasha Junmanee
Judges Comment: "Nick is an accomplished large-scale portrait painted in grisaille, which despite its size is intimate and contemplative. There is an adroit tension between refinement of form and an expressive and gestural application of acrylic paint that allows the beard and shoulders to dissolve. The painting’s surface is rich, with washes layered over a rougher, textural ground. This conjures the phantasmic."
Judges Comment: "Along the Cooks River is a confident work, with a strong painterly application of gestural lines and daubs of colour. Beyond its technical proficiency — a proficiency predicated on ‘looseness’ — it is intriguing because it requires the viewer to imaginatively decode its elements: what constitutes sky, vegetation, embankment or river? Is this a reflection? Are there dematerializing figures promenading in the foreground? Form and formlessness collide.."
Contemporary Highly Commended: No. 41 "Reflections" by Helga Kelly
Judges Comment: "Southern Grey Sands demonstrates the artist’s self-assured and commanding watercolour technique, paired with an astute, discerning eye for composition and design.The eye slips from one visual element to the next, between positive and negative shapes, across the largely neutral greys and blue-greys of the composition, to be arrested by the golden tones of isolated pebbles and rocks. An engaging and accomplished work."
Ceramics Prize: $250 No. 62 "Ceramic Sculpture" by Selma Fida
Judges Comment: "Many hours in the making, careful observation and meticulous construction have been married to produce an exquisitely detailed porcelain sculpture. A mass of leaf and floral forms belies the delicacy of individual elements. A subtle and captivating piece worthy of 1st prize within this category."
Ceramics Highly Commended: No. 34 "Night Stars Ceramic Bowl" by Alfred Colvin
