Former Archibald Prize winner to judge a new Queensland art competition which offers a $10,000 cash prize
The Royal Queensland Art Society has launched a new competition for Queensland artists that will offer a $10,000 cash prize to the winner.
On 1 October the Society will announce the winner of the Queensland Figurative 2014, a non-acquisitive award open to Queensland artists.
“I’m very excited to be judging the first Queensland Figurative and I think this event is just going to grow and grow,” says Wendy Sharpe who has had an impressive career as a painter, having been awarded a number of scholarships and overseas residencies. She has held more than 40 solo exhibitions around Australia and internationally and won the Archibald Prize in 1996 with a self-portrait, Diana of Erskineville. Sharpe says the Queensland Figurative entries can be abstract or of a traditional style – if the art work shows an interesting idea with good use of colour, design and tone, then it will earn its place on the wall of the Petrie Terrace gallery.
“A good painting is a good painting and a figurative painting is a painting of something you can recognise,” she says. “I’ll be looking at all those formal composition things but also I’ll be asking: What was the artist’s idea, what were they trying to do, and have they achieved it? It’s not about style, it’s about coming up with an idea and expressing it fully. We’ll be trying to hang as many works as possible for it’s a very educational opportunity for artists to see their work out of their studio and amongst other people’s paintings in a different area. When you view your art work somewhere new and among others you see it freshly and notice things about it that you’ve never seen before.”
Art-lovers can view the competition entries at the Royal Queensland Art Society’s Petrie Terrace gallery from 1 to 11 October. Entry to the exhibition is free.
