The winners of the Queenscliff 150th Anniversary Art Awards were announced Saturday afternoon at Salt Contemporary in Queenscliff. The $5000 Open Art Acquisitive Award went to Mark Cairns for his oil painting Blue Entry II. Anita Iacovella won the Print Making Award of $500 for her monotype Numen I.
Cairns says of his work, “Blue Entry II represents a direct access to the Australian beach in summer. In this painting I’m interested in the juxtaposition of the vertical man-made poles and the horizontal undulations of the ocean water.”
The everchanging nature of the sea has been a constant source of inspiration for Cairns who lives in Barwon Heads. His evocative paintings capture the capricious nature of the ocean with its infinite variation in light, form and colour – the fleeting movement, the dance of light on the surface. His canvases are consumed by a vast expanse of water with a high horizon line or sometimes no horizon at all. Simple man-made structures contrast against the shimmering sea, signalling human activity, but these semi-abstract shapes are executed with such economy, an air of mystery lingers.
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Mark Cairns, Blue Entry II, 2013, oil on linen, 122cm x 106cm. Image courtesy the artist.
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Mark Cairns accepts his $5000 award. Photo: Artin’ Geelong.
Iacovella’s Numen I dwells between abstraction and figuration, a monochromatic work rendered with immediate and expressive gestural marks. It references the ‘numen’ – a spirit presiding over an object or place, or a guiding principle, force or spirit. In a recent interview on Artin’ Geelong, Iacovella explained her artistic approach. “I feel sensitively attuned to the natural world and the impact it makes on me at an internal and spiritual level. Within the process of making the work the images come from the unconscious mind. The images are informed by memory which brings forth aspects of the sublime, atmosphere, light and history through various representations of landscape, space and nature.”
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Anita Iacovella, Numen I, 2011, Monotype, 120cm x 85cm. Image courtesy the artist.
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Anita Iacovella with her Print Making prize and the winning work, Numen I. Photo: Artin’ Geelong.
The exhibition runs for the next two weeks at Salt Contemporary and Seaview Gallery in Queenscliff and Tussock Upstairs in Point Lonsdale. Viewers can vote for their favourite work in the People’s Choice Award which will be announced at the end of the exhibition.
For more information about the exhibition, check out Finalists announced in Queenscliff 150th Anniversary Art Awards
Borough of Queenscliffe’s 150th Anniversary Art Awards exhibition
4 May to 19 May, 2013
Salt Contemporary Art, 33 Hesse St, Queenscliff. Ph: + 61 3 5258 3988
Seaview Gallery, 86 Hesse St, Queenscliff. Ph: + 61 3 5258 3645
Tussock Upstairs, 89 Point Lonsdale Road, Point Lonsdale. Ph: 0418 392 485
