Past Winners

ABOUT THE ARTWORK:

Francesca Owen is fine art photographer; having studied Photography at University and being an ex Synchronised Swimmer she submerged herself in the artistic realm, capturing the interplay between movement and water and transforming her aquatic experiences into evocative visual narratives for fine art prints in the home. 

'The Banya' is a fine art print capturing a moment in time showcasing the strength and grace of the female form. Poised beneath the surface, whilst letting go - a space where vulnerability becomes power.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK:

I am a queer artist working across photographic self-representation, costume design, moving image and textile-based artworks. Born in Ipswich and spending several decades in Brisbane, I now reside in Sydney where I lecture at the National Art School and UNSW.

While a portrait’s anticipated to reveal something of a subject, I am drawn instead to the potentials of queer in/visibility and the performance of photographic dis/appearing acts. By constructing elaborate costumes, I hide in plain sight from my own camera.

ABOUT THE ARTWORK:

'January 26'- is from a series titled 'A lingering ache' based on Aboriginal dispossession. The Aboriginal mother and daughter reflect on Australia Day, and the arrival of the first fleet, as a day of celebration or decimation.  

My hope is that this artwork, with its deliberately muted tones, arouses in the viewer's mind, a dispassionate, conscience-driven, empathetic internal debate on this significant symbolic issue of our times.

Through my photographs, I like to explore what lies beneath the human skin- the subtle unspoken twists and angst of the heart and thought.  I love to create storytelling art that reflects subtle nuances of people's inner selves.
 

ABOUT THE ARTWORK:

To draw and paint is a strange yet humbling occupation. The only job where you work happily and often don’t get any regular salary! 
To paint is to unravel, deconstruct, explore and repack the truth. To look isn’t to see – to see is what is most important – sounds obvious but to see is everything.

My studio sits on a hill in a small town called Sofala (near Bathurst) – Russel Drysdale country. He made the town ‘famous’ with his series of paintings, The Cricketers’. 
The dirt road featured, now covered with bitumen, but the Pub still stands. The town isn’t much bigger than it was in the 1850’s, when it was erected, but the locals exhume the same warmth. Other painters that have worked there include Donald Friend, Brett Whiteley and John Olsen. I like to walk in good company!

I have followed a wonderful painter called Berthe Morisot one of the first female plein air painters. She painted portraits, yet her approach to a landscape was similar in nature to her approach to portraiture. The light falls on a cheek the same as it falls on a hill. My portraits attempt the same panache. 

I often describe the moment when you begin a painting is similar to entering a cold pool. Slide in slowly taking quick breaths as the cold water surrounds you.
Put your head under the water and it is a different world; one of bent perspective and muted sounds. The black line at the bottom of the pool has a mind of its own – zig zagging on its own volition.

Cezanne said “Nothing we ever see is still, because we are never still”. 
I work with fleeting light, the seasons, flies and weather, when I paint, the inclusion of cars and caravans, amongst the hills, a primitive reality materialises. 

To be a painter is difficult, often challenging, but I am of the belief that I’m the luckiest person in the world.