2022 MAP Portrait Prize Winners

Mid-Western Regional Council Best Portrait Prize

Gus Armstrong
High waters on the shoulders of giants
2022

4k Video Duration: 54 seconds

High waters on the shoulders of giants portrays Peter Swain, local Dabee elder, artist, poet and resident of Kandos.

As a permanent observer of the Cudgegong River, he lays witness to the incredible heavy-handed force of the recent floods and wears the debris as a marker of the passage of time.

The high-water headdresses that are spotted well above the riverbanks are seen here collecting around Peter as he inspects the condition of the river.

Gora and Ellie Singh Mann Prize

Anna Robards 
Self portrait (always ourselves) 
2022

Digital print on archival cotton rag
H. 50 x W. 50 cm

Returning to my hometown of Mudgee forced me to consider my own childhood, how I’ve changed and how the area has changed.

Studying photography at art school fostered a love of the relationship between analogue photo-chemical processes and instantaneous image capture. This self portrait is a digital scan of a Polaroid taken on expired film stock. It represents memory through the imperfections created by the development process.

Simon Staines Best Emerging Portrait Prize

Jessica Hodge
Author, historian, daughter of Kandos, my great aunt, Colleen O’Sullivan 
2022

Black BIC pen on paper
H. 29.7 x W. 21 cm

I am fascinated by people, our diversity and our stories. I recently lost my grandpa and have since peppered my great aunt – his sister, Colleen, with questions. Learning the narrative of my ancestors in the region where they settled has been instrumental to me accepting my grief and highlighting the importance of family.

Colleen is an avid historian, teacher and writer, so transcribing her image, with pen on paper, seemed entirely appropriate.

The Mudgee Art House Courageous Award

Blake Griffiths 
Someone Winning Somewhere 2022

Woven oil painting
H. 50 x W. 40 cm

This body of work interrogates the canvas as a woven surface, that, for the purposes of painting is often eliminated or hidden through the priming process. Painters are trained to add layers of gesso, sanding back each time to fill the ‘bumps’ of the textile surface, transforming it into something that textiles are inherently not – smooth. Textiles here are exploited for their flexibility and weight, but the true essence of what the canvas is and its material properties as a woven surface are completely dismissed.

Griffiths literally weaves technology’s history back into itself in his portraits which are constructed of painted works that have been sliced and re-woven. Playing with the traditional roles of weft and warp, Griffiths produces images which distort the his subjects, arriving at a merged figure who is not one thing, but a confluence of identities: exposing a new surface. While the figures depicted are still recognisable as such, they blur at the edges, hovering hologram-like within the interlocked threads. The notion of the surface is reconfigured in Griffiths’ work, which questions the certainty that is sought through painted representations, embracing the inherent tension embedded within the canvas.

Highly Commended

Richard Maude 
Clare Brokenshire (1994)
2021

Oil and acrylic paint on plywood panel
H. 46.3 x W. 38.2 cm

Clare and I had dated for a couple of years in the mid- 1990’s and had remained friends, although not in regular communication.

Throughout 1994 and 1995 I made sketches and many photographs of her, including the drawing and some tonal painting on this piece of plywood. I finally completed this painting soon after hearing of Clare’s passing, full of love and sadness for the loss of her beautiful presence.

Clare Brokenshire 23.01.1961 – 07.02.2021

SPS Solar People's Choice Prize

Stephanie Galloway Brown
Mignon Parker 2022

Oil on canvas
H. 101.6 cm W. 92 cm

Mignon and I have been great friends for years. We admired each other’s artwork long before we met. Mignon paints, eats and sleeps in the comfort of her studio.

As a busy single mum she carved out a successful career as a popular art teacher and prolific, vibrant still life painter featuring her love of flowers and Australian natives. I wanted to portray Mignon within her colourful clutter and art book collection.