Notes from judge: Darren Crothers - Bendigo Easter Art Show 2025
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Best in Show: Nina Volk – The light of the Shamrock
- This painting has a strong visual presence with it’s scale and drama.
- With racking golden light and deep darks and with suggestive detail which enhances it’s pictorial depth.
- The lively brushwork of the people and birds creates movement and life throughout the work.
Best Oil: Glen Downey – Ghost of the swagman
- A standout piece of photorealism.
- It is well crafted, with subtle rendering of all details, even with all the detail nothing overwhelms the eyes.
- A swagman being an Australian term for an itinerant worker. This is a modern painting process depicting in a fresh way a part of Australian history.
Best Watercolour: Reza Martin – End of Summer
- This is a painting that makes you think of warm jumpers and hot coffee.
- It evokes a cool change. The cool violets, grey browns, lost and found forms suggest fog and drizzling rain.
- The drooping branches of one tree strategically point to the almost hidden hut. The door is open, waiting for someone to come in, out of the cold.
Mixed Media: Amanda Weston – Grazing the creek bed.
- A linocut skillfully executed with a riot of detail from the Australian bush. Gums, shrubs and sheep have been carefully carved.
- With limited tonal range, four values. Amanda has created a strong graphic image.
- The use of diminishing scale, such as rocks in the foreground, to the middle ground has been skilfully observed.
The Best Small Image: Glen Hoyle – The Dawn of a new day
- I really like the use of contra jour, the way the trees have been backlit, capturing a beautiful time of day.
- It is a clever composition from the cropped trees and clouds on the outer edges that help to contain the image visually.
- From the leading line of the bush track that takes us to the centre of interest, and the gold lit tree that veils the sun.
- Contrasting warm colours through the trees to the cool foreground enhances the warmth of the rising sun and it’s effects.
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