Artist Name: ALEXANDRA MATTHEWS

Artwork Title: CORNERED

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 34 x 34cm

About the Artist:

Painting Urban landscapes of my local area. Watching as light translates the familiar into a new language.

Artist Statement:

A favourite corner of mine as darkness falls. In their turn, sets of headlights illuminate and spotlight features on this well travelled, evening, city escape. For a moment, turning long grass into golden threads. There's a wilderness quality to the cliff edge of the Ithaca Memorial Garden above while the surrounding silhouettes of trees have a Gainsborough quality.

Artist Name: CONOR KNIGHT

Artwork Title: SHED STUDY

Medium: Oil on linen

Size: 22 x 16cm

About the Artist:

Conor Knight is an emerging artist based in Brisbane.

He has been a finalist in the 2021 Clayton Utz Art Prize, the 2021 Lethbridge 20000 Small Scale Art Award and the National Emerging Art Prize.

Conor refines his own walnut oil which is used to mull his own oil paint, a more ethical and organic alternative to commercial oil paint.

He enjoys painting primarily from life.

Artist Statement:

A small shed observed from a bike ride at the height of the day.

Judge’s Comment:

The artist’s confidence, courage and clear intention in the colour, brush works and value of the light and dark, gives power in this subject. The artist seems to infuse his energy into what he wants to depict on the canvas.

Artist Name: ANDREW GRASSI KELAHER

Artwork Title: OPTICAL OVERVIEW

Medium: Oil and acrylic on canvas

Size: 95 x 100cm

About the Artist:

I have been an artist my entire life. If I'm not painting canvases I'm building large snow sculptures across the ski fields of Australia and if I'm not doing that I'm painting murals all over the country.
I have been exhibiting in commercial galleries since my late teens and have had numerous solo shows across Australia and exhibited internationally.

Artist Statement:

This work is a surreal, slightly abstracted painting which ties together bits and pieces of views I've stored in my mind as I've travelled across Australia over the years. Im moving my work into a looser and more interesting area that has influence from Brett Whitetely, Arthur Streeton and Wayne Theibauds landscapes. Its come together to create a cool landscape which toys with your mind as your eyes wander across it. Ive also consciously left marks in the paint. The little accidents that add to the mystery of the image.

Artist Name: ANDREW STATTMANN

Artwork Title: STILL LIFE WITH LANDSCAPE, AFTER WHITELELY (COLLAGE)

Medium: Ink, collage and acrylic

Size: 68 x 98cm

About the Artist:

Andrew has been an Adelaide Hills resident for 25 years, where he primarily draws landscapes, but also interiors and still lifes. His artwork is made by alternating plein air work with studio work, until the piece is resolved. He graduated from North Adelaide School of Art in 1998.

Artist Statement:

Notes for the judges : Made from recycled landscape drawings.
It is designed to work well from a distance (optical blending)

Judge’s Comment:

Beautiful feeling of light.

Artist Name: ANITA WEST

Artwork Title: BLUE GUM SAPLING

Medium: Acrylic on linen

Size: 60 x 130cm

About the Artist:

I live and work in Brisbane and I am interested in the idea of the 'romantic' that is historically attached to the Australian bush. I have a deep soulful affinity with this place and my paintings are a constantly evolving attempt at exploring the atmospheric and the beauty of this landscape by playing with abstraction and realism, emotion and perception, perspective and pattern.

Artist Statement:

Breathing in the scent of Eucalypt after the rain, filling my lungs with the oxygen of life. My soul is touched by the dusky pinks of new growth and the crunch of fallen leaves beneath my feet.

Artist Name: JESSICA NOTHDURFT

Artwork Title: HEY BITCH

Medium: Oil on timber panel

Size: 25 x 30cm

About the Artist:

Jessica Nothdurft is a multimedia artist living and working in Brisbane, Queensland. Following studies in visual arts at TAFE Queensland (2003–2004), she continued her art education at Queensland University of Technology (2005–2008). Since then, she has developed her art practice.
Artist Statement
Jessica Nothdurft works in a variety of media, including oil, ink and metal, to produce evocative documentations of her life experiences. In hyper-restrained line works, a battered housewife, pregnant dogs, cages and crouched forms recur. By drawing on the familiar visual languages of artists from Giacometti to Louise Bourgeois and Jenny Watson, Nothdurft transforms highly personal circumstances into universal scenes. In turn, her faux-naive style explores the existence of struggles below the surface and the many facets of shame.

Artist Statement:

The lone dog wanders the landscape, she is searching for herself.

Her bloody nipples symbolise her struggle.

Artist Name: ANNA GLYNN

Artwork Title: ‘BEAUTY ON BEAUTY’

Medium: Single channel digital video

Size: 1080 x 1920cm

About the Artist:

I strive to create visually poetic work investigating the connection between humans and nature, land and place, history and culture, the physical and the ephemeral. Nature, history, ecology and the environment are essential elements of my practice and integral to my work.

Artist Statement:

Lush diaphanous imagery of the rugged Australian landscape of Mt Wilson is layered upon inverted manicured European styled gardens as ‘Beauty on Beauty’. Upside-down introduced flora hangs suspended questioning the Eurocentric notion that the Northern Hemisphere is the ‘correct’ way up and we hang upside down in our opposite ‘Antipodes’.

https://vimeo.com/813429093
password MtWilson

Artist Name: BARBARA STEPHENSON

Artwork Title: SUMMER DAYS, SMOKEY HAZE

Medium: Textiles

Size: 80 x 80cm

About the Artist:

I chose textiles for their texture, colour and their stories of past use. Textiles are fluid. I coil, twist, stack, and stitch. The complexity of fabric and thread merges, forming stylised landscapes.
With repetitive lines, circles and spirals, I explore the balance between naturally formed intricacy and human designed order.

Artist Statement:

Just as maps tell stories of travelling over the land, this stylised landscape tells of the forces that have formed it – weather, time, and human use/misuse. The scene may seem still and timeless but look closely. There is smoke in the sky. A bush fire is burning undetected. What next?

Artist Name: BERIC HENDERSON

Artwork Title: REMEMBERING UTOPIA

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Size: 63 x 93cm

About the Artist:

Beric Henderson is an Australian artist whose work explores our perceptions of nature and the environment and how these are subject to constant change. He has contributed to more than 70 exhibitions since 2003 in Australia and internationally, and works mainly with painting and drawing.

Artist Statement:

“Remembering Utopia” explores our perception of landscape, and how observed images transform and reshape in our minds and memory over time. Here, the artist revisits an idealised Australian coastline he painted a decade ago, which now, like his recollection has slowly become fragmented and fluid, shifting with time.

Artist Name: BRONWYN SEARLE

Artwork Title: THE MOON LAST NIGHT

Medium: Oil on Canvas

Size: 60 x 60cm

About the Artist:

Bronwyn enjoys the challenge of taking ordinary everyday subjects and bringing out the stories and beauty that are often overlooked. Her passion for plants is reflected in most of her works.

Influenced by her illustrative training, she has developed her own technique with oil on canvas that has become widely recognised.

Artist Statement:

A child’s impression of the night sky expressed through the universal art of pavement chalk drawing is interpreted in a painting in oils. The house lights evoke the feeling of the safety of home in a suburban street while other elements remind us that our landscape extends from the ground to the sky.

Judge’s Comment:

The combination of the unique idea, attention to the details and the deliberate non-details details... combined so well. It's trans culture and trans generation.. gives many viewers a warm smile.

Artist Name: BROOK PARKINSON

Artwork Title: SWIM BETWEEN THE FLAGS

Medium: Film

Size: 5 x 46cm

About the Artist:

Brook Parkinson (b.2004) grew up in Australia his whole life. Living in Meanjin country, Brook shares a strong relationship with the land and the stories around it. Since graduating high school in 2021, he continues to learn and practice different forms of creative media, growing as an artist in the process.

Artist Statement:

Swim between the flags (2023) follows as a lifeguard is patrolling his beach. In comes to frame a beachgoer asking for trouble and after a wave capsizes his doughnut, the lifeguard rescues and leaves him to rest. This short film explores the unique comedic style of Australia whilst incorporating the country's magnificent natural beauty.
https://vimeo.com/813407400

Artist Name: CARMEL MONTAGUE

Artwork Title: GREY DAY AT MAIN

Medium: Oil

Size: 30 x 60cm

About the Artist:

Exploring places and moments in time, Brisbane artist Carmel Montague is inspired by the landscape and the sky that frames it. In places both real and imagined, she is particularly drawn to light and colour, capturing the mood these evoke and the memories they recall.

Artist Statement:

Straddie has always been a constant part of my life and provides me with constant inspiration for my art. This painting is a memory of the beauty of Main Beach as storms were preparing to roll in and the beach was closed for business.

Artist Name: CAROLYN V WATSON

Artwork Title: BETWEEN WHAT WAS SEEN AND WHAT WAS SAID

Medium: Epoxy clay, cattle ribs and vertebrae, sheep ribs polymer clay, bees wax, glass and porcelain spheres. reclaimed timber, rabbit pelt

Size: 95 x 40cm

About the Artist:

Drawn to a theory of defamiliarization and situated knowledge, Watson employs labour-intensive methods, and a repetitive physicality to reconstruct symbols of nostalgia, place and memory.
A multi-award-winning artist with a 17-year exhibition career, Watson’s work is held in public and private collections in Australia, and internationally.

Artist Statement:

'Between what is seen and what is said' is the tale of 21 bones gifted from the landscape of Northern NSW and their 10-year odyssey of renewal and adaptation.
The work is a collaboration of past histories, distance travelled, and the pivotal conversations that have led these bones to bloom.

Artist Name: CATHERINE HAMILTON-JONES

Artwork Title: PANDANUS PATH

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 76 x 50cm

About the Artist:

Catherine Hamilton-Jones is a Brisbane based realist painter, working primarily in acrylics and oils. Vibrantly coloured landscapes and Queensland coastal scenes are central themes of her compositions. Hamilton-Jones’ work has been described as "meticulously observed and executed, displaying remarkable clarity of colour and conveying a wonderful sense of light."

Artist Statement:

Born and bred in South-East Queensland, I often draw inspiration from our stunning coastlines. This is one of my favourite spots on the Noosa Coastal track. I was motivated to share my appreciation for this sunlit scene and capture it in the saturated colours so typical of Australian landscapes.

Artist Name: CHRIS HUBER. ASMA

Artwork Title: FLEETING RAIN

Medium: Oil

Size: 100 x 120cm

About the Artist:

Solo Exhibitions since 1975 Australia and Overseas. Max Germaine;1991 Artists 1978,1982-1990
2021:Finalist-Lethbridge Gallery
2021:Australian Society Harbour Life -Honourable Mention
2022: ASMA Melbourne ,Victoria - Curators Choice
2022; American Arts Award,2nd and 3rd prize in the World's Best Landscape Realists/ Traditional Section by Mary Martin Galleries

Artist Statement:

The day I saw these Fields stretching out beneath me I knew I had to capture them.
Rain Storm just enhanced the subject. The fields changed from light to dark. Excitement !as fleeting Clouds danced from one spot to another revealing a Theatre of Drama captured in this Painting somewhat.

Artist Name: CLEMENT MAC AN T’SAOIR

Artwork Title: BANSHEE

Medium: Digital photo/print

Size: 50 x 78cm

About the Artist:

I have a natural curiosity for observing and looking at life unfold. Whilst I like traditional landscapes, I am fascinated by the elements which are a littles less obvious, often overlooked and challenge the viewer's emotions. Stimulation at a different level..

Artist Statement:

A voyeur in the alleyway capturing the spirts which move and shapeshift beyond the eyes of a bustling city. Seeking refuge. Illicit deals. A place to transform unseen.

Artist Name: COL MAC

Artwork Title: THE OCEAN IS A BLANKET PULLED BETWEEN SLEEPERS

Medium: Single channel digital video

Size: 28 x 10cm

About the Artist:

Col Mac is an inter-disciplinary artist whose work draws on the landscape and language to create narrative driven images in fragments brought together to form something complete and whole. Whether it’s simply capturing a shift in the light making more than one time possible at once, conversations over generations or a text work being read over and over in an unending moment. His work has appeared in the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Financial Times, NBC, Vice, and the Big Issue and more. He has been a finalist in The Brisbane Portrait prize, Swell and shortlisted for an AOI world illustration award.

Artist Statement:

The ocean is a blanket pulled between sleepers is a video work that uses text within the
landscape to both disrupt the image while centring the space it fits within. This projected
seascape highlights the ocean as a connective thread between landmass and people. As the
tide approaches and recedes from the shore we feel the inverse push and pull experienced
by people across time zones and continents in the same way we might feel a blanket being
pulled from either side of a bed providing comfort and connection through constant tension.
This language floating in space as the water rises at its base, along with the fragmented
figures appearing and disappearing within the frame draw attention to the contested space
we occupy over time.

Judge’s Comment:

No video link- emailed artist

Artist Name: CRAIG ADDLEY

Artwork Title: LOW TIDE, CUDGERA CREEK

Medium: Oil

Size: 76 x 121cm

About the Artist:

Craig Addley is a Brisbane based artist who captures the coastlines and scenery of South East Queensland. Many of these scenes are popular coastal holiday locations that resonate with locals and visitors for their distinctly sub tropical location and accessibility. Craig's paintings are held in various public and private collections.

Artist Statement:

Cudgera Creek is a timeless family holiday spot that has all the classic memories and experiences of day trips to the beach. This scene shows the area at low tide, exposing the rocks through crystal clear water with families playing in the inlet with the dunes and surf beach beyond.

Judge’s Comment:

Unique perspective, beautifully painted water and sky.

Artist Name: DAVE GROOM

Artwork Title: LAST LIGHT FLIGHT

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 70 x 64cm

About the Artist:

Dave Groom has been painting the landscape that surrounds his studio on the edge of Lamington National Park for over 25 years. His aims are simple - to create timeless paintings that celebrate the colours, textures and atmosphere of the Australian landscape, in all its different moods.

Artist Statement:

My studio, on the edge of Lamington National Park, is surrounded by eucalypt forest. I observe this forest every day and see its changing moods with different weather and times of year. The light of late afternoon is a favourite time and this painting is a reflection of that time of day.

Judge’s Comment:

An exciting composition. Good colour range and sense of distance.

Artist Name: DINA GILLESPIE

Artwork Title: MUTED VIEW

Medium: Oil on birch

Size: 23 x 17cm

About the Artist:

As an emerging artist, capturing light and mood is everything to me. Through using a limited palette, muted tones and simple form, I strive to evoke an emotional response from the viewer.
I am constantly fascinated by the energy, yet stillness and calm that can be found in landscapes.

Artist Statement:

I hope that my work inspires contemplation and introspection and that in encourages the viewer to connect with the beauty, mystery and complexity of the natural world.

Artist Name: FIONA BARRETT-CLARK

Artwork Title: PILGRIMAGE

Medium: Oil on plywood

Size: 103 x 133cm

About the Artist:

Fiona Barrett-Clark is a Sydney based contemporary landscape painter. Her works reflect the atmosphere and eeriness of the Australia landscape in the late afternoon and evening, when the changing sky sits against the shadowed land.
Fiona is represented by Saint Cloche Gallery in Paddington, NSW.

Artist Statement:

Australia is imbued with an eeriness that is never more present than that glorious time between day and night.
Recently I traveled to the NT. Like a religious pilgrimage, a reflection on pass and present brutality bound with guilt and immense beauty, this country I call home.

Artist Name: FIONA KENT

Artwork Title: LOST FENCES

Medium: Pastel, charcoal, gesso on Canton Mi-Teintes paper.

Size: 74 x 104cm

About the Artist:

Fiona Kent is a Sydney based artist working primarily in pastel en plain air to capture the vastness and beauty of our land. Visually Fiona aims to allow the viewer to connect with their own sense of self within her images of country. Recent focus has been in pushing the boundaries of pastel as a medium in the creation of sculptural pieces and using materials not normally associated historically with pastel in her 2D works.

Artist Statement:

Lost Fences shows the peace found in country and the essence of nature reclaiming its skin.

Artist Name: GARY ABKIN

Artwork Title: DROVER IN LANDSCAPE, TWO PINES

Medium: Enamel based oil on plywood

Size: 61 x 70cm

About the Artist:

American born painter living and working in Australia.

Artist Statement:

Part of a series of paintings of Australians in the Australian landscape.

Artist Name: HELENNA DOHLE

Artwork Title: THE MIGHTY BRISBANE

Medium: Coloured pencils

Size: 29 x 38cm

About the Artist:

Helenna has always found it quite difficult to write artist bios. This is because she fears that once her third party self gets a chance to start talking about her, she will begin terrible, malicious rumours and will tell everyone how weird she is!

Despite her weirdness though, she has been a creature of creativity since her infancy and her artistic expression is less a choice, than an all encompassing need. Driven by a love of colour, and nature, she uses coloured pencils to express her innermost imagination onto paper.

Artist Statement:

While most people in South East Queensland boast at least a passing acquaintance with the Brisbane River, there are not many who are familiar with the very upper reaches of the river at Mt Stanley. At times, especially in drought, it is hard to see that it is a river at all. But don't let that fool you, because the locals understand the ferocity and power it can unleash. This artwork is meant to be a small glimpse into the beauty of the Upper Brisbane River valley.

Artist Name: HOWARD SEARCHFIELD

Artwork Title: SOUTHERLY WHITE CAPS

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 90 x 180cm

About the Artist:

While I enjoy painting many subjects, it is seascapes that have commanded most of my attention and devotion. I am led by a love of nature, the ocean, and an attempt to capture on canvas the majesty, mystery and powerful beauty of this ancient entity.

Artist Statement:

Standing right on the edge of the rocks feeling the spray, smelling the sea salt and hearing the roar of the big surf fills me with such a feeling of exhilaration and sense of adventure. It is one of the pure joys of life. Capturing the movement and feeling on canvas is certainly a challenge. But a challenge, as an artist I love and cannot resist.

Artist Name: HYE WON LEE

Artwork Title: HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

Medium: Acrylic, watercolour, oil and pencil on canvas

Size: 46 x 46cm

About the Artist:

Hye Won Lee is a Brisbane based emerging artist whose practice explores the felt experience of spiritual faith within the context of everyday life. Lee takes landscape imagery from her own immediate surroundings and reproduces it into mixed media (mainly oil, acrylic and pencil) paintings on canvas.

Artist Statement:

Hidden in plain sight is aimed to encourage viewers to consider the idea that the sublime is not reserved, only to be experienced on rare occasions, but that it is hidden in every moment, available to all who may seek it.

Artist Name: ISABELLE DEVOS

Artwork Title: LINGERING HILLS AND HIDDEN PLACES

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Size: 76 x 102cm

About the Artist:

Isabelle Devos is a Belgian-born Australian-Canadian artist living and working in the New England Tablelands of NSW, on Anaiwan Country. Her landscape paintings capture a quiet yet strong sense of place and mood and explore scenes where people have shaped the landscape and a story is waiting to unfold. Devos exhibits regularly at galleries in Sydney and across New South Wales and her work is in the collection the Art Bank in Canada and the University of New England in Australia. Recently she has been a finalist in The Glover Prize, Paddington Art Prize and Calleen Art Award.

Artist Statement:

of hills and hidden places that linger in memory
of fields and landscapes
where magic exists,
and in this secret world
a dark, mysterious cleft
where trees, boughs and branches enfold

-Isabelle Devos, 2023

Artist Name: J9 STANTON

Artwork Title: TJORITJA ERODING

Medium: Mesh and copper wire

Size: 103 x 155cm

About the Artist:

With a Batchelor of Fine arts in sculpture at VCA, I now live, practice and exhibit in central Australia.
I create abstract wall art with an ethos of repurposing materials. Surrounded by landscapes millions of years old, the aspect of deep time, environment and sustainability are what informs my work.

Artist Statement:

Lines created by processes of folding and eroding made a significant impression on me when first visiting the west Macdonell Ranges. The black mesh represents the now scorched earth after years of allowing Buffle grass, the volatile weed that burns too hot, to take a hold in central Australia.

Artist Name: JANE MILLINGTON

Artwork Title: LET THE WAVES CARRY YOU

Medium: Oil

Size: 100 x 70cm

About the Artist:

Fascinated with the healing nature of our waters, I focus on creating delicate stills of moments. Through this singular focus I aim to facilitate a deeper engagement with our waters, sharing nostalgic and rehabilitative connections from the viewpoint of our coastal lands.

Artist Statement:

The healing nature of the water and the interplay of light on it, evokes a sense of clarity that puts into perspective the problems in our lives. There is a security, an understanding of place, that comes from contemplating the enormity of the sea, both in its expanse and its enduring nature.

Artist Name: JOANNE KERR

Artwork Title: MERGING

Medium: Acrylic on linen

Size: 92 x 92cm

About the Artist:

My art practise has always been based on drawings and sketches that are then developed into paintings, collages or lino prints. I have discovered through my own artistic and personal journey with these ‘road trip’ paintings that as inspiration goes, drawings however small are the best starting points for my own re imagined landscapes.

Artist Statement:

Merging is a work that considers boundaries and diversity while travelling our country’s roads, exploring its vastness, freedoms and identity while in lockdowns and restrictions. Based on sketches done while travelling, I overlay colour to re-imagine a landscape that reflects positiveness and hope of better times ahead.

Judge’s Comment:

here is a dynamic and experimental way to this painting. Those dancing broken and contoured lines gives a feeling of continuous journey on the road while whistling a song.

Artist Name: JOE WHYTE

Artwork Title: BY THE DEPOT

Medium: Oil on linen

Size: 56 x 97cm

About the Artist:

Joe Whyte is a Melbourne-based Artist. Working in the mediums of drawing and oil paints, his works draw inspiration from the places and the light of Melbourne's inner-north.
He has exhibited widely, and has been shortlisted for numerous awards. He was the winner of the 2020 A.M.E Bale Drawing Prize.

Artist Statement:

I walk past this building most days, seeing it in all variety of light.
I always find myself drawn to the cavernous building and quiet street. There is something quite evocative of the building which sits empty through much of the day, with the trams are out on the roads

Judge’s Comment:

The combination of the muted warm colour, and the subject choice - what perhaps look like inactive buildings and the composition of those buildings and the vast sky, draws me into the painting and leaves strong remnants of the moment of the day. This painting almost gives off a smell of the empty road.

Judge’s Comment:

Beautiful feeling of light.

Artist Name: JOHN HUTTON

Artwork Title: NORTHBRIDGE, TASMANIA

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 50 x 60cm

About the Artist:

I live and work on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Originally educated and trained in art education in South Africa, I have lived in Australia since the late 80's. I have held numerous solo exhibitions and been part of group shows for many years. Drawing, painting and printmaking are my primary means of expression.

Artist Statement:

My preoccupation is with at the emotional potential of physical spaces. My surroundings become a springboard to explore personal responses to environments, both exterior and interior. Abandoned places, emptied landscapes and detailed architectural structures, bear traces of human presence and are suggestive of what went before or what might still occur. The works document a personal history of departures and returns. Unusual cropping, unexpected viewpoints and strong contrasts of colour, tone and texture invite the spectator to enter these spaces empathetically. In the rendering of familiar scenes, the works become reminders of the passage of time and our experience of distance,.

Artist Name: JOHN MARTIN

Artwork Title: IKARA ON A ROADTRIP

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 61 x 91cm

About the Artist:

John Martin is a Brisbane-based artist who works with painting, drawing and new media. With oil painting his work is as much an exploration of the medium as the subject. His work has been shown at galleries and prizes around Australia.

Artist Statement:

This painting depicts the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park in South Australia. This spectacular view is from Razorback Lookout looking over the Heysen Range at sunrise. A photo from a friend’s road trip around Australia was the inspiration for the painting and the winding road invites the viewer to do the same.

Judge’s Comment:

Good light, good colour, good composition.

Artist Name: JUDE HOTCHKISS

Artwork Title: SCRUBLAND

Medium: Acrylic on canvas

Size: 122 x 138cm

About the Artist:

A gestural abstract painting background has made texture and movement a feature of this current semi representational work. The landscape and environment have been a focus for the last few years, as the climate emergency becomes even more urgent. My work aims to create an emotional impact.

Artist Statement:

From plenair sketches I aimed to capture the spiritual energy of Australia’s ancient and unique bushland. This painting uses the contrasting qualities of fragility and strength to help show the current threat from extreme weather that our forests are under.

Artist Name: JULIE REES

Artwork Title: REPREIVE

Medium: Photography on acrylic mounting

Size: 60 x 60cm

About the Artist:

Brisbane artist Julie Rees (b.1977) creates work where the real and the unreal collide. Her art practice takes a multi-media approach drawing inspiration from personal or collective experiences. Julie's art practice delves into personal and/or shared experiences in order to gain new perspectives through an alternative lens.

Artist Statement:

When darkness surrounds your being,

It's necessary to find the path that is most freeing.

Seizing moments of mental reprieve,

Is where your desperate can take its leave.

It's a space that offers you swift comfort,

And help rid yourself of any discomfort.

Artist Name: KAILUM GRAVES

Artwork Title: COSMOS, OR A CHRONICLE OF LIFE’S INCREDIBLE ORDER, COMPLEXITY, AND REMARKABLE STRUGGLE AGAINST ENTROPY AND RESISTANCE OF DECAY

Medium: Single channel digital video

Size: 0 x 0cm

About the Artist:

Kailum Graves' research delicately exists in a space between photography, Internet art, algorithmic art, and digital performance. He is particularly interested in the way humans use technology to transform, manipulate, and transcend natural environmental limits. There isn’t a one-way correlation; instead, a culture develops a technology, such as agriculture, to change the environment, and this technology, in turn, changes the culture and society that created it. Kailum explores this closed loop by creating large-scale still and moving images that play with the ubiquitous dichotomies between physical and digital existence.

Artist Statement:

A five-hour abstract moving landscape painstakingly created frame-by-frame to depict Life, the Universe and Everything. The aim was to be as scientifically accurate as possible yet visually compelling in the interest of underscoring the interconnectedness and interdependence of all living things. Humans have always been captivated by the Cosmos and humanity’s place within it, so have sought to understand and explain it through various historical, cultural, religious, philosophical, and scientific perspectives.

Artist Name: KAREN BROCK

Artwork Title: L'ATELIER - MANLY ART PRECINCT

Medium: Oil

Size: 37 x 90cm

About the Artist:

Karen Brock is an emerging artist with her practice located on the Northern Beaches of Sydney.
Her figurative works and everyday moments paintings allow Karen to experiment with composition. Incorporating the use of a still life arrangement or a figure as a repoissoir element leading into the work allowing the viewer to piece together the scene gradually and with a focus on the light within a space and the elegance in which light rebounds from everyday objects.

Artist Statement:

This painting aims to represent a description of the passage of daylight as it permeates the interior space of this L'atelier.
The figures, boards and easels are integral to the composition to successfully communicate context, however, the shifting contrast between interior and exterior lighting remains the primary focus in this work.

Artist Name: KAREN COLLINS

Artwork Title: BRISBANE STORY

Medium: Oil

Size: 90 x 90cm

About the Artist:

As an artist, I have always found inspiration in the natural world and seek out beauty in cities. Throughout my life, I have had the good fortune to travel extensively, collecting images both in my mind and through my camera lens. These experiences provide me with an almost infinite source of reference images, which I use to create my oil paintings. Painting my travels and memories allows me to relive these moments and share them with others.

Artist Statement:

The Story Bridge, built in 1940, is a historic structure that has become a beloved landmark of Brisbane. It spans the often murky waters of the Brisbane River, known affectionately as the "brown snake” and offers reflections of Brisbane’s unique characteristics and ecological diversity.
The painting captures the essence of Brisbane's rich history and cultural heritage. The bridge, with its strong lines and sturdy structure, serves as a symbol of the city's resilience and determination, the newly developed Howard Smith Wharves add a touch of warmth and conviviality and the Kangaroo Point Cliffs offer a contrast to the man-made structures and remind us of the stunning natural beauty that surrounds the city.

Artist Name: KARENA WYNN MOYLAN

Artwork Title: UNDERSTORIES: THINGS FALLEN - CAMELLIAS

Medium: Oil

Size: 82 x 105cm

About the Artist:

Karena Wynn-Moylan is a mid-stream career artist whose current series 'Understories: Things Fallen ' is a closer examination of the stories that are often ignored under our feet. Her current works combine a mastery of watercolor techniques and oil glazes to produce large scale works filled with detail and luminosity.

Artist Statement:

Part of a series of works examining the beauty of decay and also the artist's response to the senseless destruction of the natural world for greed and development. This 50-year-old camellia tree used to be beside the artist's studio but was chopped down for subdivision.

Judge’s Comment:

Interesting subject, beautifully painted.

Artist Name: KARL DE WAAL

Artwork Title: THE EDGE OF THE OUTBACK (DYPTICH)

Medium: Found timbers, bitumen, various oxides

Size: 600 x 850cm

About the Artist:

Primarily a sculptor although he dips his toes in a wide array of processes. In a world where the bulimic consumption of experience and knowledge saturates us, his work seeks to remind us of the fragile and vulnerable nature of humanity.

Artist Statement:

Farming land decimated by the harsh Australian landscape of droughts and rains. The battle to survive continues through adversity, the patchquilt of farmland forever changing.

Judge’s Comment:

Very unexpected way of capturing harshness of the land. Juxtaposing the neatly framed and controlled timber and the idea of the unpredictable power of nature braces the viewer

Artist Name: KATHY ELLEM

Artwork Title: MOMENTS LIKE THESE.... GRAHAMS LANE

Medium: Oil

Size: 95 x 155cm

Artist Statement:

The light effect on this valley changes throughout the seasons, and every year there is something different to observe. I find there is nothing better than spending a little time just soaking up that one moment. Spending that extra amount of time expressing that feeling with paint is the ultimate challenge.

Artist Name: KELLIE NORTH

Artwork Title: DREAMCHASER I

Medium: Photography Digital Art

Size: 65 x 70cm

About the Artist:

Kellie, a Self Portrait Artist moves with practiced precision, working silently, listening to nature and to her own internal landscape. She describes the feeling when drawn intuitively to a landscape, she senses something that resonates, a feeling, an emotion that signals a truth within her. She hopes to capture the moment so she can portray it as a visual story as fully as she experiences it, here and now.

Her work has been described as visual poetry – it’s highly emotive and unwaveringly evocative. Her art explores the vivid contrast of fluid organic shapes and the natural world, it celebrates their differences yet unites them, creating a lasting impression with the viewer.

Not one for treading the traditional photographic line, Kellie often likes to combine her natural forms and landscapes with surreal elements, using carefully refined composite and digital art techniques.

Artist Statement:

As a self-portrait artist I come alive when I’m in the bush. This image was taken in the early morning on the outskirts of Longreach, just as the sun peaked up over the horizon.

I remember the moment vividly, the earth beneath my feet was dewy between my toes, the breeze was cool, a welcome delight from the heat of the day before, I felt at home, connected and free, as I stood grounded, basking in the warm light caressing my skin.

Being here, on the land at this moment, was a moment in time I will not forget. I was seeing colours in the sky and a richness in the land, so painterly I could feel the earths life and spirit around me.

Judge’s Comment:

This artwork allow us to feel every sensation the artist may have had in this moment. Transporting us to this moment of warmth on earth and how it feels to be alive.

Artist Name: KIRSTEN BRESCIANI

Artwork Title: WHERE I'D RATHER BE 1

Medium: Photogravure print on Hahnemühle paper

Size: 53 x 40cm

About the Artist:

Kirsten Bresciani
Brisbane born photographer now living and working in Melbourne. Kirsten spends her time photographing gardens, architecture and interiors, food, and people. Kirsten has always loved to make photographs and is currently enjoying print making and alternative photographic processes in her own time. This has culminated into multiple exhibitions and an online store. A lover of travel, she finds herself more grounded these days with her husband, two young boys and Jack the cocker spaniel.

Artist Statement:

This work is from a series that explores the artists desire to be more connected with nature. She photographs locations frequented as a part of her day to day life running herself and her family around Melbourne. Photographs from the artists archive taken during travels into the natural environment have been superimposed into the urban setting to create a window into a place one expects to find connection with nature and in return, calmness. In contrast to a fast paced frenetic city existence, the natural landscape is free of demands.

Artist Name: LAURA PROCHOWSKI

Artwork Title: IMMOLATION

Medium: Oil

Size: 65 x 65cm

About the Artist:

Laura Prochowski is a self-taught artist working in Sydney, Australia.
Laura began their artistic journey in textiles as an illustrator. Exploring new ways to diversify their creative practice, Laura began painting abstract works in oils in 2021.
Inspired by narratives of the natural world, Laura paints abstract landscapes that reflect the current state of humanity and our relationship with the land.

Artist Statement:

'Immolation' is a reflection of the self-destructive nature of humanity and the need for action to address climate change. It portrays a moment of destruction, capturing the power of the natural world and the consequences of our actions. Using bold brushstrokes and intense colours, I sought to convey the immersive experience of being at the heart of the fire and to encourage viewers to take action to protect the landscapes that surround us.

Artist Name: LEANNE VINCENT

Artwork Title: STORYLINES

Medium: Cyanotypes on cotton with thread (Framed)

Size: 67 x 76cm

About the Artist:

Vincent’s photography-based practice is engaged with the landscape and investigates shifting perspectives of spatial ecology within Anthropogenic biomes.

She holds a Bachelor of Photography from QCA, her work is held in public and private collections, and she has exhibited nationally.

Artist Statement:

Storylines is an assemblage of cyanotype impressions illustrating a narrative of regional trends intertwined with domestic life, industry, and human altered natural habitats. Contact prints of digital negatives, and photograms of collected remnants of local flora and fauna, together function as a reflection of our impact on the land.

Artist Name: LINDY SALE

Artwork Title: LUSH GARDEN

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 61 x 77cm

About the Artist:

Having lived in Brisbane for many years, Lindy now lives on the Sunshine Coast hinterland near forest. Her work has been strongly influenced by her new location in terms of subject matter and colour references.

Artist Statement:

I wanted to paint the leafy vegetation of this garden, particularly the nuances of green and the darkness of the shadows. Most of the work was painted en plein air using an elongated brush handle with the canvas flat on the ground.

Artist Name: LORI PENSINI

Artwork Title: WILD HIBISCUS LANDSCAPE

Medium: Oil on linen

Size: 120 x 105cm

About the Artist:

Lori is a nationally awarded narrative/figurative artist. She combines botanical elements to reflect personal transformations in a unique ‘language of flowers’. ’​My art practice is an exploration of my identity and placement within my family’s multifaceted history. It is illustrated directly from my responses to, and relationship with our landscape’.

Artist Statement:

Wild hibiscus unfurls at the beginning of my journey into self awakening living on a remote cattle station in the Pilbara, WA. It is where I found my creative voice and ultimately shaped the woman I was to become.

Artist Name: LUCY RAY

Artwork Title: CARPETS, CROWN AND DOG, A VACANT FIELD.

Medium: Graphite, cold wax on paper, mounted on timber panel

Size: 60 x 40cm

About the Artist:

Lucy Ray is a Melbourne artist from the traditional land of the Darumbal People of Central Queensland, living between Australia and Abu Dhabi.
This year she will show work in Exploration 23 at Flinders Lane Gallery and Locals at Outré Gallery and is a finalist in the Dobell Drawing Prize.

Artist Statement:

Exploring remnants of events that linger in a seemingly abandoned landscape. The piece explores ideas of loneliness, storytelling and liminality through landscape and still-life. Without an existing pretext, the experience is of chancing upon a scene that's played out—leaving a trace of something for those who came in late.

Artist Name: MARCEL DESBIENS

Artwork Title: A DAY DREAM

Medium: Oil on panel

Size: 40 x 40cm

About the Artist:

I am passionate about nature and I have been reflecting on the act of painting. I always wanted to know how I would feel about creating a composition without visual references, no photos, no plein-air in nature. Just the surface, colours, oil, brushes and me. An intimate closed circuit opening my imagination, a little more water there, shifting trees, more stones along the rapids, and why not, a country road leading to the distant hills.

Artist Statement:

I might have been to this place in my dreams or in another life... I was patiently looking at the white surface, waiting for inspiration, when I decided to let the brush find its own way free. Colours suddenly led the way and took me on an exploration journey towards this final, improvised destination.

Artist Name: MARTIN KING

Artwork Title: TREE OF LIFE, JOURNEY OF LOST SOULS IN TWENTY VOLUMES NO 2

Medium: Etching, drypoint, spitbite, photopolymer gravure, hard cover books

Size: 112 x 120cm

About the Artist:

Martin King has had over 50 solo exhibitions throughout Australia and has exhibited in many group exhibitions both in Australia and Internationally. His practice includes, drawing, watercolour, printmaking, artist books and animation. He is represented in National, State and regional galleries in Australia, as well as international collections and Museums

Artist Statement:

This work embeds naturalist John Cottons illustrations of birds of the Melbourne district in 1840 into an etching of a hybrid tree, an English Elm and indigenous Peppermint Gum, both present in Fitzroy Gardens Melbourne. Past and present fuse, the work is memoriam and a vision for future eco-diversity

Judge’s Comment:

Very unique and evocative.

Artist Name: MATT JAMES

Artwork Title: LIGHT AFTER DARK

Medium: Oil on canvas, framed in Blackwood

Size: 101 x 101cm

About the Artist:

Brisbane artist Matt James’ art practice is focussed upon landscape painting and drawing. Having grown up in rural West Wales, Matt’s love of the outdoors is the key driver of his dynamic works.

Based on pencil and oil sketches created in situ, from photographs, and from his recollection of locations, Matt’s dynamic representations of place arise from a synthesis of memory and sense impressions. Considered observation of the shape of the landscape, the movement of clouds, the perception of distance and the shifting of light inform Matt’s thickly textured approach, allowing him to move between representational and abstract responses to places.

Artist Statement:

As the storm moves through it is replaced with a new light. A simple depiction of hope in troubled times. The painting aims to capture the calming seas and clearing skies. Cool greys and blues are punctuated by the yellows revealing themselves out over the horizon

*Should this painting be selected I am happy to take your advice regarding pricing*

Artist Name: MELANIE SINCLAIR

Artwork Title: LINGER

Medium: Digital Image

Size: 75 x 50cm

About the Artist:

Mel (Melanie) Sinclair is a practicing Landscape and Creative Photographer from South East Queensland. She has won awards for her work, which draws on the simplification of the landscape during the intense winter fogs that haunt the Scenic Rim, less than an hours' drive from Brisbane.

Artist Statement:

Linger is the expression of a wisp of fog after an intense frost on the grassy plains. A negative-five morning snap-froze the vegetation, every twiggy detail coated in a thin veil of ice. As the sun rose, the fog thickened and then lifted, the grass glowing in the morning sun.

Judge’s Comment:

The simple and powerful moment captured in this photo, gives the sense of a span of time longer than the captured moment, a feeling of hope and uncertainty of what’s next.

Artist Name: MERRIN GODWIN

Artwork Title: PALMWOODS POND

Medium: Acrylic on paper

Size: 28 x 19cm

Artist Statement:

A beautiful experience recreating this peaceful and pretty scene painted from a stunning family photo taken not far from our old hometown Woombye It was such a splendid day for colour in Queensland and conjures many happy memories. The lush greens and blue skies, the boughs of the overhanging gum and the stillness of the pond with the golden tipped bracken.

Artist Name: MICHELLE STEVEN

Artwork Title: TRANQUIL TREES

Medium: Charcoal on paper

Size: 70 x 51cm

About the Artist:

Michelle is an Australian artist working out of her studio in regional NSW. Versatile in a number of mediums, one of her favourites is charcoal. Her landscapes are loose and expressive much like the Australian countryside surrounding her.

Artist Statement:

I prepare my surface by scratching into it and splashing ink over it. I love the unpredictability of this and the textures that are revealed when its finally covered with charcoal and I start to work back into it with an eraser. I love this push / pull process.

Artist Name: MORGAN GUY

Artwork Title: ROAD TO THE BUSH (THANKS FIONA)

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 40.5 x 51cm

About the Artist:

Painter, Curator and Teacher, Guy Morgan's work has appeared in art prizes across Australia including the Archibald Prize (twice), the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize, the Lester Prize (previously Black Swan - twice), the Percival Portrait Prize (five times), the Mosman Art Prize (five times), the Lethbridge 10000, the Collie Art Prize and many others.

Artist Statement:

A study in Australian winter light...

Artist Name: N G MALLA

Artwork Title: THE OLD NEIGHBOURHOOD

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 45 x 60cm

About the Artist:

NG Malla’s art practice focuses primarily on urban and domestic landscapes; particularly homes and residential neighbourhoods. She resumed painting in 2019 after raising her four children and has been a finalist in the Greenway (2021, 2022); Waverley Woollahra 9x5 (2022), Hunters Hill Art Prize (2022) and t Blacktown Art Prizes (2022).

Artist Statement:

The iconic residential architecture of Australia’s urban fabric evokes nostalgia for homes we have visited or inhabited while reflecting unresolved periods in Australia’s social and economic history. The morning sun projecting through the gumtrees illuminates the ageing terraces but the muted pallette suggests the ‘old neighbourhood’ is a memory.

Artist Name: NICK OLSEN

Artwork Title: MODERNISM IN THE SUBURBS

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 76 x 62cm

About the Artist:

Nick Olsen is a Brisbane based artist whose exhibiting career spans 35 years. His work focuses on the urban environment and the stories that can be documented using architecture as a key element.

Artist Statement:

This painting depicts the quiet solitude that can be found in our suburban streets. As the warm summer light moves across the street we are drawn to the modernist bus stop and it’s representation of 1970s Australia.

Artist Name: NICOLE JAKINS

Artwork Title: IN THE STILL

Medium: Stoneware clay, eucalypt ink, remnant brass [smoke/flame treated], 925, ash, pigmented ink

Size: 38 x 80cm

About the Artist:

Jakins obtained a Bachelor of Arts (Visual Arts) majoring in Sculpture at The University of Newcastle.
Her current sculptural and mixed-media practice incorporates the use of clay elements as well as salvaged, remnant and discarded materials, often combining these with natural dyes and ochres.

Artist Statement:

'In the still' is an imagined wallum landscape full of beautiful native species of wattle, hakea, melaleuca and myrtle, with the flow of tannin-rich waters, undulating hills, and the gentle rustling of lorikeet in amongst the flowering euclaypts. It is the sister work to 'A gentle sway' currently touring through with Flying Arts Regional Art Awards.

Artist Name: OTTO SCHMIDINGER

Artwork Title: LIGHTFINGERS

Medium: Oil

Size: 76 x 101cm

About the Artist:

I have been a finalist in over 44 art competitions including the Dough Moran and have won first prize in six including the D’Arcy Doyle and several second and third prizes.
I have no preference for the medium or the subject of my work, which covers all genres and styles.

Artist Statement:

Lightfingers.The sun reaching through the dense trees spotlights a tangle of trees and vines on the opposite shore.

Artist Name: PHILIP HICKINGBOTHAM

Artwork Title: DAINTREE

Medium: Acrylic

Size: 92 x 92cm

About the Artist:

Art is my personal connection to the world. I manipulate materials to express visions from my imagination. My studio in Rural Victoria is where I create. Outside of my studio, I work as an Art Educator.

Artist Statement:

Through my use of vibrant acrylics, I seek to transport viewers to the lush depths of the Daintree Forest. My work is a celebration of its organic beauty and a reminder of the importance of preserving our planet's precious ecosystems.

Artist Name: PHILLIP ROLTON

Artwork Title: HOBART'S INDUSTRIAL PANORAMA

Medium: Mixed media

Size: 66 x 91cm

About the Artist:

After many years working within the abstract genre, I have recently adapted my style of painting to Photo Realism and now work predominantly with watercolour and pen & wash. My subject matters are drawn from the environment, city built form and ‘on the street’ moments and utilising high resolution photography and sketches as the foundation for my art pieces.
Early years in Sydney and London as a colour retoucher in the printing trade, provided me with intricate brush and pen skills, but importantly, the discipline to commit to this difficult ‘attention to detail’ style of painting.
Studying at the Sydney Art School, the Melbourne Gallery School under the tuition of John Brack as well as life drawing classes by Jon Molvig in Brisbane, offered me an appreciation for form and interpretation.

Artist Statement:

Returning by ferry from Hobart’s International Gallery, MONA, I was astounded by a panorama of many metal structures on the side of the Derwent River. Unaware of the industrial purpose of these buildings, but totally captivated by the abstract landscape and disparate architecture.

On returning home and viewing my high resolution photographs, I felt that a black and white realism drawing would complement this landscape’s imposing composition of Nysart's Zinc Factory.

Working in a photorealism style and challenged with the importance to capture the play of light, and deep shadows against the intricate construction lines, I worked with pen, ink and watercolour to bring this art piece slowly to realisation.

Artist Name: ROSE KNIGHT

Artwork Title: OPAL COUNTRY

Medium: Oil

Size: 53 x 124cm

About the Artist:

Award-winning Melbourne artist Rose relocated to FNQ in 2018 immediately captivated by the vast pristine spaces and dramatically contrasting seasons in the skies that dominate her work.
I am fundamentally a landscape artist, but I will not paint a reflection, rather a footprint of the energy that emanates from such powerful places.

Artist Statement:

Opal Country-
The rocky outcrops, gorges and escarpments of the Gulf Savannah country shimmer their reds, oranges and ochres in perfect contrast against the outback sky and hiding a wealth of minerals, metals and gems. For me?..... the treasure is right in front of me!

Judge’s Comment:

The feeling of dust is very convincing.

Artist Name: ROSE WILSON

Artwork Title: HUSH LITTLE BABY DONT SAY A WORD

Medium: Oil

Size: 105 x 105cm

About the Artist:

Born in Albury NSW in 1964, Wilson studied at the National Art School Sydney, Newcastle & Darwin Universities acquiring her BAVA in 1997. While living up north Wilson lived in Arnhem land where symbolism became a major factor in her work. Wilson has been a finalist many times in some of Australia’s most prestigious art prizes.

Artist Statement:

Even-though i love living in a small farming community, one thing i find difficult is when off-springs are taken from their mothers. Sometimes in the dead of night the cattle trucks would come, and i am awoken by their wails. This happens every year, and after a few days their cries become less.

Judge’s Comment:

Feeling of love and anticipation of sadness captured at the same time in how the sheep is arranged in the canvas, even in the colour and texture. While there is a current of sadness flowing underneath this painting, there is also the feeling of ever changing flow of life, even this moment will change.

Artist Name: ROSS TAMLIN

Artwork Title: KYOGLE ROAD

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 122 x 122cm

About the Artist:

My work has been exhibited in more than 20 countries including Australia. My paintings are in private collections in Europe, America, Canada, Asia and Australia. After a long professional career in contemporary, graphic textual paintings, I wish to return to my earlier interest in figurative and landscape painting.

Artist Statement:

A regional town in NSW known as the gateway to the rainforest, Kyogle is where I live and work from my studio. My painting was inspired by driving along Kyogle Road which traverses long, steep stretches of rugged and very dense primeval forest on its way through the Border Ranges to Queensland.

Judge’s Comment:

Wonderful light, shadow and atmosphere.

Artist Name: RYAN ANDREW LEE

Artwork Title: WEBB

Medium: Video

Size: 0 x 0cm

About the Artist:

Ryan Andrew Lee is a conceptual new media artist whose practice explores alternative ontologies and
epistemologies which are strongly informed by First Nations people and community. His work employs
experimental film-making processes including cinema vérité and slow cinema to present contemplative
observations on contemporary environmental and socio-political issues.

Artist Statement:

Ryan Andrew Lee
Webb, 2022
Full spectrum infrared video (5k)

Webb is a full spectrum infrared video work that reveals locations on the Central Coast and Hawkesbury that are affiliated with or named after James Webb.

Well known as one of the first European settling land owning pioneers of the Central Coast, Webb is lesser known for his atrocities committed such as firing upon the local Indigenous population and procreating without consent with many young Aboriginal women here in the area.

Similar to Richard Mosse' video work The Enclave, infrared camera technology that registers invisible light is utilised to make visible the unseeable.

This work attempts to draw attention to the true history of the places in which we now live and work and begs to challenge that perhaps our society in this present day and age may need to re-assess the basis of ethos on which such stature of people should be revered.

Video Link - https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XDYMCSfIJkuc2tSV8JQeobKBS9fnIhX1/view?usp=share_link

Video Stills - https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QKF_9HRwenfc7vGAmy9AAt4wbRAZHXmA?usp=share_link

Artist Name: RYAN INGALL

Artwork Title: EILDON RESERVOIR SUNSET

Medium: Oil

Size: 30 x 41cm

About the Artist:

I am a local artist working from plein air sketches done in oil and charcoal around SE Qld and as far South as the Central Coast of NSW. Developing over several layers I aim to imbue the sense of momentary beauty I am in dialogue with and questing towards.

Artist Statement:

Eildon Reservoir is near my home.The original sketch for this was done in 40 minutes en plein air. I continued that thread of inspiration with a second panel sketched in charcoal and developed over with expressionistic layers with knife and brush to reflect what was salient in this moment.

Artist Name: RYAN WILLIAM DAFFURN

Artwork Title: DREAMSCAPE

Medium: Oil on linen

Size: 90 x 100cm

About the Artist:

Ryan Daffurn grew up in the Redlands, on Brisbanes' south. After studying Fine Art interstate and travelling overseas for further education and life experience, he has returned to Brisbane as the base for his career. Maunsell Wickes Gallery represents his work in Sydney.

Artist Statement:

To create this painting I kept a sketchbook next to my bed, hoping to record a ‘stream of consciousness’ experience during moments immediately after waking. The painting juxtaposes various elements inside/outside of my home, splicing many viewpoints in order to merge or associate important features of my life.

An underlying concept is that of the ancient myth of Janus and the Janus head configuration. The painting attempts to be a kind of painted-portal where doorways and openings are visual metaphors that help convey flux and transition. Books are suggestive of immersion and imaginative adventure, shared with another special person.

Artist Name: SALLY GLOVER

Artwork Title: SWINGING WITH THE SHIFTING WINDS

Medium: Oil

Size: 30 x 21cm

About the Artist:

Sally works predominantly with oil paint applied in thick layers to enhance depth and colour interpretation. She finds inspiration from the complexities of colour, the play of light and the manipulation of form. Sally’s intuitive response embodies her passion to work spontaneously, yet considered and structured.

Artist Statement:

'Swinging with the shifting winds' displays soft, pure colour applied in thick, fluid layers that captures the ever-changing shapes and shadows bringing depth and honesty to the work. The piece represents a romantic play on the everyday with a nod to shared memories within the local community.

Artist Name: SAM ASKIN

Artwork Title: CRADLE MOUNTAIN HUT

Medium: Soft pastel on paper

Size: 90 x 80cm

About the Artist:

Sam Askin is an emerging artist from Townsville, North Queensland specialising in soft pastel, oil and charcoal fine art. Sam draws inspiration from his local region and daily life, exploring the intersection between natural and human creation in cityscapes, beachscapes, and still life.

Artist Statement:

This artwork reflects everything in my lived experience of my only journey to Tasmania. The ultimate cool wilderness around every corner, crossing over with suburbia and heritage from our impact across the State. I remember feeling like the lines between civilisation and nature were slightly blurred here compared to anywhere else I had been, and I have tried to capture the climate, contrast and emotion of this feeling in this piece.

Artist Name: SCOTT MCDOUGALL

Artwork Title: AUTUMN MOON, TENTERFIELD NSW

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 91 x 122cm

About the Artist:

Scott McDougall is contemporary realist painter, Queensland born and Brisbane educated, with diplomas in both Art Teaching and Fine Arts. Heis well represented in both private and corporate collections here and internationally. He has been a finalist in both the Sulman and Wynne Prizes as well as many other national art prizes.

Artist Statement:

When I was watching this magical moon hovering at sunset above the hills of Tenterfield I was immediately reminded of the paintings of David Davies (1864-1939). Capturing the golden hour of light was difficult, the quickly changing glow elusive. This subject matter presented me with some very unique problems that I took time and patience to solve to my satisfaction.

Artist Name: SYBIL CIRTIS

Artwork Title: ALL THAT REMAINS

Medium: Oil on linen

Size: 125 x 125cm

About the Artist:

Sybil Curtis is best known for her distinctive and poetic renderings of industrial structures. She sees them as gigantic sculptures with their own fearful beauty.

Artist Statement:

All that Remains is based on the Hampden Smelter, Kuridala, near Cloncurry (1911-1920). Mt Isa Mines purchased the operation in 1924 and relocated it to Mt Isa. Kuridala once had over 2 000 inhabitants: now all that remains is a graveyard and the decaying smelter being reclaimed by the bush.

Judge’s Comment:

Great light, technique and composition.

Artist Name: TIM GREY

Artwork Title: VACANCY

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 61 x 91cm

About the Artist:

Tim is a visual communicator, painting and drawing from life and his imagination. A Brisbane-based artist and designer with an extraordinary eye for detail and composition. His passion lies in creating realist paintings reflecting a moment in time – a unique visual commentary capturing the interplay of light, shadow and form.

Artist Statement:

Empty rooms wait in hope while only their chairs keep each other company in the afternoon sun.

Artist Name: TODD WHISSON

Artwork Title: NATURES REVERENCE OVER NEARA CREEK, KILCOY

Medium: Oil

Size: 122 x 172cm

About the Artist:

My goal is to produce works in a picturesque style that's honest and simplistic; capturing the feeling of light as it's contrasted with the emerging shadows which vividly express my message.

Artist Statement:

Natures Reverence over Neara Creek, Kilcoy is a landscape painting capturing the beauty of the sunset and luminous, yellow light, as it spreads over the sunbaked land, creating a golden glow. The once sunbathed creek banks are now drenched with sweeping shadows as the evening canopy creeps in. This work symbolises and reflects nature's reverence.

Artist Name: TONY WINDBERG

Artwork Title: GOLDEN STATE

Medium: Pencil, earth pigments (Iron oxides), acrylic binders and oil on 60 paint sample cards on 3 wood panels

Size: 41 x 180cm

About the Artist:

Artist Tony Windberg was born in Melbourne in 1966 and lives in Pemberton, Western Australia.

He graduated from Curtin University in 1986 and is represented in significant corporate, public, and private collections.

His landscape-based artwork combines drawing and painting techniques with conventional and non-conventional materials.

Artist Statement:

Gridding the ancient Pilbara landscape of Western Australia alludes to the process of resource extraction aiding economical imperatives - a tenuous reliance on Earth’s oldest landscape.
The arrangement of paint sample cards echoes the grading of ore samples, which were used in the artwork to connect directly to the subject.

Judge’s Comment:

Beautifully created. The mountains have a legendary feel.

Artist Name: VIVI PALEGEORGE

Artwork Title: A WALK IN TIME. CLARICE BECKETTS CORNER, BEAUMARIS.

Medium: Oil

Size: 50 x 40cm

About the Artist:

Vivi enjoys trying to capture a mood or the effect of light on a variety of subject matter, whether it may be water, still life, landscape or figurative scenes. She paints in watercolour, acrylic and oil and also applies her talent and love for painting by teaching and mentoring her own classes.

Artist Statement:

This painting was inspired by the setting of an isolated figure out walking late at night on the very corner where Clarice Beckett once lived. In my mind, the figure eerily represented Clarice, walking back to her Beaumaris home after having completed a painting somewhere nearby.

Artist Name: VYVIAN WILSON

Artwork Title: TEMPEST OF DUST (BACK OF COOBER PEDY)

Medium: Oil on linen

Size: 94 x 94cm

About the Artist:

Wilson lives and paints on Dharawal Country in Wombarra NSW. Most recently her works are celebrations and lamentations of the fragility of the Australian landscape as a result of extreme climate. Vyvian’s work is included in several national and international private and public collections including the Wollongong City Art Gallery.

Artist Statement:

Wilson's painting responds to an approaching desert dust storm I witnessed when camping in Central Australia. I have built the image by rendering my feelings, the light and colour sensations I recall of the subject. The intention is for my paintings to be visceral, speaking to the viewer’s emotional body.

Artist Name: WAYNE SINGLETON

Artwork Title: TAKING THE SLOW ROAD

Medium: Hand coloured linocut print

Size: 63 x 81cm

About the Artist:

Printmaking makes me be still and it gives me a grounding that comes from reflecting on my relational place in the world; it is a way of appropriately being in it.
I draw and cut my relief blocks in lino. Relief block making has been a constant through my adult life.

Artist Statement:

All we really have is our presence; our attention.
We can say, ‘I see you.’
That’s why I like to take the slow road.
‘Just a boy running barefoot through it all’ Rumi

Artist Name: WERNER FILIPICH

Artwork Title: PRETTY BEACH

Medium: Oil

Size: 35 x 45cm

Artist Name: ZOE SERNACK

Artwork Title: WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN

Medium: Acrylic on wooden board, floating frame

Size: 62 x 72cm

About the Artist:

Zoe Sernack is a Sydney-based artist continually inspired by the natural world. Her abstract landscapes communicate what can be seen on the surface in the recognizable forms of leaves and trees and also what is buried in the subconscious memory of place.

Working predominately on timber boards she etches shallow grooves and dents into the surface. She then builds up many layers of paint, constantly pushing and pulling at the elements of realism and abstract, of what is recognized with eyes and what is also felt with the heart and mind.

Zoe studied at the National Art School and has over 25 years of practice and exhibited in over 65 exhibitions, both solo and group shows. She has also found recent acclaim as a finalist in a number of well known art prizes.

Artist Statement:

'When The Sun Goes Down' explores the connections between landscape and the subconscious. As a keen observer, I'm often found immersed in nature sketching and planning the next artwork. My objective has never been to realistically depict what I see but to combine observation with abstraction and mark-making to evoke memory and a sense of place. I am constantly fascinated by the intelligence of the natural world, its networks below the earth’s surface and the flourishing compositions we see above the ground. I’m grateful that I can be inspired by the Australian landscape and its prolific botanicals.

Judge’s Comment:

The exquisite balance of what we can visually see of nature and the artist’s interpretation of nature in the abstract. The elements the artist depicted are interconnected as nature is. Because its boundaries are not certain, it provides the viewer an open invitation to relate to it in their own way.