ArtSpace Wonthaggi president Ursula Theinert welcomes guests to Winter Solstice 2019. . By Deb Watson
WE ALWAYS enjoy hosting our winter solstice exhibition at ArtSpace Wonthaggi. It’s a wonderful opportunity to bring the artistic community and audience together in a dormant, dark and cold time of the year. We look on it as a way of celebrating the shortest day and bringing light back into Gippsland.
This year's exhibition included a vibrant and diverse selection of artworks by 17 local and Gippsland artists, new and returning.
Judge Kate Zizys was impressed with the overall standard and competencies of the artists. She said it was a difficult exhibition to judge due to the high quality within such a wide range of subject matter, styles and genres.
WE ALWAYS enjoy hosting our winter solstice exhibition at ArtSpace Wonthaggi. It’s a wonderful opportunity to bring the artistic community and audience together in a dormant, dark and cold time of the year. We look on it as a way of celebrating the shortest day and bringing light back into Gippsland.
This year's exhibition included a vibrant and diverse selection of artworks by 17 local and Gippsland artists, new and returning.
Judge Kate Zizys was impressed with the overall standard and competencies of the artists. She said it was a difficult exhibition to judge due to the high quality within such a wide range of subject matter, styles and genres.
 Marian Quigley's 'Pip' won the senior award.  Angus Wishart's 'Hibernation' won the youth award.  Karen Chugg’s ‘Winter Storms’ won the award for emerging artist. | The award for senior artist went to Marian Quigley for Pip, a beautiful surrealist work which recalled for judge Kate Zizys the ground-breaking women artists living and working in Mexico in the 1930s. “Perhaps Marian's adjoining paintings also lend context to my reading of this work- the voyages of immigration, adventures and travel are part of the combined history of the women who identify post war European surrealism," Kate said. While ArtSpace gallery continues to represent and promote professional artists, the need to encourage up and coming artists of all ages is a strong focus within our values and important for our community. The youth award went to Angus Wishart for ‘Hibernation’ and the award for emerging artist went to Karen Chugg for ‘Winter Storms’. The emerging artist category is a way of defining artists who are young and keen to develop their skills, techniques and visual responses as well as artists who may be starting out or revisiting their artistic skills later in life, having rekindled an interest or simply finding some time. Honourable mentions went to Susan Hall and Lynda Horsborough. Kate was very thorough with her responses and comments, providing valuable written feedback for the winning artists and for all to share. The opening was attended by a full house audience who enjoyed Karin Murphy Ellis’s delicious gourmet sandwiches and music by a young emerging musician, Amelie Renouf.. Coupled with a glass of Hurdy Gurdy fine wines, it was a recipe for a cosy winter afternoon. |