Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing

Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing Exhibition of Finalists Adelaide Perry Girl with kit bag. c. 1920s Officially Opened by Wendy Sharpe Ballarat Fine Art Gallery Gift of John Brackenreg, 1974. Thursday 1st March 2007 Aida Tomescu, the judge for The Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing 2007, was delighted to learn about the prize and hoped that more and more artists were encouraged to enter. Aida was very happy that all of the drawings here were able to be shown. Originally her task was to choose 30 artworks from the hundreds that were entered but she felt it was a far too difficult a task to exclude such fine entries so 39 were finally selected for exhibition. Of the judging process, Aida said: “I went on the intensity of the work, its power and the effect it had on me. I was more curious and interested in the work of five people and reluctant to be narrowed down to less than two because of the diversity and strength of so many works in the show.” “How do you go past the power of the trees in Robert Shepherd and Terence O’Donnell, that I both like, or the commitment and sensitivity that I responded to in Anne Judell’s drawings? In Amanda Robins work, that I would like to highly commend, I responded to the mysterious brooding, yet silent image that lent power to the show. I was pleased to discover Michelle Zuccolo’s drawing and found the poetic approach moving with a desire to see even more of her work. Lots more would be deserving, but I couldn’t take the responsibility of choosing just one because of the strength in more than just one drawing.” It is not surprising therefore that for this year’s Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing, Aida Tomescu has chosen to split the prize to be shared equally by two artists, Joe Frost for his drawing The Back of the City and John Fitzgibbon for his nude Woman on a stool. “John Fitzgibbon’s work that I have seen in the last couple of Dobells goes from strength to strength and I am entirely convinced by this drawing, in particular the striking power of the face. I feel the sincere strength of the approach deserves rewarding. I am entirely convinced by the clarity of language in Joe Frost’s drawing ‘The Back of the City’ that I found both intense and poetic.” Adelaide Perry Gallery In “The Croydon” Centre for Art, Design and Technology at Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Sydney Corner of Hennessy and College St Croydon Ph: 97045693 Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing 2007 Rachel Ellis Living Room Window, 2005 Winner of the 2006 Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing Tony Ameneiro White Skull Black conté pencil on Japanese Kozo paper stretched over board 150 x 80 cm $2, 200 This drawing comes from a larger series of drawings and prints based on the one view, the underside of a cow skull. Found in a field next to our home in Mittagong, these skulls have become a type of ‘slate’ for exploring ideas & techniques, as well as being a strong symbol of place and time for me. In this work the linear contour approach echoes not only the form of the original object, but also the tight contour lines from the topographic maps of Mount Gibraltar, a prominent landmark opposite our house and the field where the cow skull was found. It continues an interest of mine in looking at maps and drawing a sense of these back into the object. My drawing practice evolves from and feeds into my other area of work printmaking. The drawn line here is in a sense, an extension of the carved or engraved line. Deborah Beck Fontainbleau Pencil and collage on board 153 x 61 cm $3, 800 I started the drawings for ‘Fontainbleau’ during a residency at the Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris in 2005. While there I collected collage material – mostly maps and images of early French cars, and began a series of paintings in gouache painted directly onto the French maps. After returning to Sydney, I continued to work from the drawings, photographs and magazines I collected in Paris, resulting in composite images of street signs, number plates and cars, often forming grids or using multiple imagery. I began by drawing the cars freehand, then traced my original drawings so I could transfer them onto the maps and paint them in gouache. In ‘Fontainbleau’( the name is on one of the maps) I have used the maps I found in Paris as a ground for thirty of the drawings of cars. Because they were drawn onto fine tissue paper with pencil, I feel they have a delicacy that seemingly contradicts the subject matter. Drawing for me is an integral part of my painting practice. I draw constantly, and often use it as a way of collecting and keeping impressions and ideas which will later be developed into paintings. In the case of ‘Fontainbleau’, the drawings I did as research have become the basis for the finished work. 2 Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing 2007 Rachel Ellis Living Room Window, 2005 Winner of the 2006 Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing Stewart Crawford Central Madrid Graphite on paper 70 x 100 cm $1, 200 My current focus in my drawing practice involves the exploration and depiction of cities and urban form. This perspective is informed by a conception of the City as a human artefact, and as, perhaps, Man’s largest and most enduring cultural statement. As a consequence, the physical form, pattern, structure and texture of cities, when seen from above, can evoke a strong aesthetic response. City patterns reflect both their history and present function and can be seen as a unique ‘fingerprint’. “Central Madrid” is an example of the rich aesthetic potential implicit in city form, when viewed from above. Through the interaction of thousands of independent decisions, over hundreds of years, by property owners, governments and builders, a unique physical pattern of land use and building form has emerged. Investigating this form on paper using graphite and charcoal reveals a tonal mosaic of buildings and a rich calligraphy in roof forms. A hatching approach has been applied to help evoke a sense of brick and masonry emerging from the ground. Tom Doherty Maya sleeping Charcoal on paper 25 x 20 cm $700 Last year I worked on a series of portraits of my friends. Maya is the daughter of my close friend Emma. I find my connection with Maya is joyful and I appreciate her inquisitiveness and wisdom. When Maya turned 7 she recanted everyone who had been there from her birth until now. I was one of those people. Maya told me, as I was drawing her, that she was studying my techniques. Soon after that she fell asleep. Until 2004 I painted with oils and that was my dominant medium. I developed an intolerance to solvents which precipitated my move to drawing. Drawing has always been part of my art practice but now my artwork consists entirely of it. 3 Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing 2007 Rachel Ellis Living Room Window, 2005 Winner of the 2006 Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing Viola Dominello The Park Charcoal on paper 30.5 x 78 cm $1, 650 The pensive and atmospheric mood in the lines Whose woods these are I think 1 know and The woods are lovely, dark and deep (Robert Frost Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening) remind me of my memories and experiences of certain European and Australian landscapes. Mary Donnelly Last night I dreamed of elephant eye silk Triptych Mixed media on stretched paper 115 x 100 cm $880 Sometimes everyday life absorbs us, causing us to lose touch with the passion that fuels the inner spirit - a spirit rejuvenated by the appreciation of the beauty that surrounds us in life. In our ever increasing haste, we tend to look for beauty in the exotic or the unusual and overlook the beauty that surrounds us every day in the most common of objects and situations. 4 Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing 2007 Rachel Ellis Living Room Window, 2005 Winner of the 2006 Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing David Eastwood Catalogue Charcoal and graphite on paper 70 x 100 cm $3, 300 Catalogue is part of a series of drawings and paintings based on discarded bookmarks found in library books. The scraps of paper are unveiled and displayed as though carefully catalogued, as the title of the drawing suggests. The title is also an oblique reference to the source of the subject matter, in that cataloguing is often associated with a library. Sketchbook pages, notepaper, a fragment of a cheque and a torn advertisement from a sales catalogue make up some of the found bookmarks scattered throughout the composition. Removed from the books where they were found, a sense of their history is attained through carefully reproduced creases, torn edges and sections of handwriting. David Fairbairn Portrait D.B. No. 8 Mixed media on paper 76 x 56 cm $2, 400 Primarily I am known for my drawing practice with a focus on portraiture of which the work included in this exhibition is representative. I work directly from the model in my studio and many of my subjects are family, or friends. I work with the one person over many weekly sittings that can sometimes continue over many months. The works are not only about the physical and psychological aspects of the sitter and the artist, but are also about the process of picture making itself.

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