Peteskibreen's Blog

Its official and getting its own bit of excitement. A great night, great crowd and Keith Burt walks away with $4000, Carolyn V Watson gets $500 [Highly Commended] and the crowd favourite [$500 Oxlades Gift Voucher] will be announced on August 19. [You can still vote by email]. What to make of it? As still new to this intensity of engagement with the arts, I am overwhelmed by the skill, draughtsmanship and imagination of all the entrants and in particular the 20 finalists. Here are marks on paper, board and canvas that tie us to ancient history and mark making. The rendering of imagination and representation visually. One pen or pencil or stick [van Gough used a bit of straw once] into ink or whatever onto the vellum onto the wall and then for the beholders to respond. Kids do it so well and their freedom of expression is not to be limited by colouring between the lines. Blake’s rule was to make sure that in life as in drawing, boundaries were well defined. I have discovered blind contours and find that funny looking shapes make for new interpretations of shapes and how my mind sees things and send messages to the pencil to the paper. We will be doing this drawing prize for a while yet and our life drawing every Wednesday is another chance to keep messages moving from eye to hand to paper.