Finalists announced for Australia's richest landscape art prize
NSW Minister for Energy Ian Macdonald has announced the 40 finalists in this year's $35,000 Country Energy Art Prize for Landscape Painting, one of the major events on the arts and cultural calendar for NSW.
CountryScapes 2008 is Australia's richest landscape art prize.
Minister Macdonald said the 40 finalists' paintings were selected from a total of 439 works, representing diverse art mediums, backgrounds and views of the Australian landscape.
"This event provides a great opportunity to promote the artistic talent across regional NSW and also support local art galleries," Mr Macdonald said.
"Since it began six years ago, the art prize has attracted entries from previous Archibald and Blake Prize winners, as well as from first-time entrants.
"The prize is open to artists who live and work within Country Energy's network distribution area, which covers 95 per cent of NSW from the coast to the outback.
"An exhibition of finalists' works is held at a different regional art gallery each year.
"This is a major draw card for regional communities, who get the opportunity to see great works of art, which they may have otherwise had to travel to larger cities to see."
CountryScapes is open to all artistic styles mediums and contexts that capture the essence of the landscape, ranging from figurative to abstract, and from charcoal to traditional oil paints and water colours.
The Minister congratulated the artists selected as finalists in this year's event.
"Landscape paintings are an ideal way to capture the soul of this State, from the scenic coastline to the raw beauty of the outback," Mr Macdonald said.
"Country Energy's partnership with NSW regional art galleries was recognised in the annual Australian Business Arts Foundation Awards as one of the best business and arts partnerships in the State."
The winner of the 2008 Art Prize for Landscape Painting will be announced on Tuesday, 21 October at the Broken Hill Regional Art Gallery, the oldest art gallery in NSW.
Some of the 40 finalists include:
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Antonia Crowe from Port Macquarie, aged 13 and is the youngest finalist.
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Ahmad Nazri Bin Abdullah from SuffolkPark, Far North Coast, aged 71 and is the oldest finalist.
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Tim Winters from Stuart Town, Central Western slopes, was the winner of the Country Energy Art Prize in 2007 and is the only artist who has featured as a finalist every year since the art prize began in 2003.
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Bronwyn Standley Woodroffe and Albert Woodroffe, a married couple from Silverton, Far West, who have both been selected as finalists.
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The Care Goondiwindi Association is a self-supporting seniors art group, and their group entry, Banks of the McIntyre, reflects their lives in the region around the McIntyre River, near Goondiwindi. Each artist has lived in the area all of their lives. The McIntyre was their swimming hole, picnic area and life blood for the crops of the region.
