We are delighted to announce that the John Dudley Portrait Prize will be happening again in 2025. This annual exhibition celebrates the life of a great artist, past president and proud supporter of the arts. This year, thanks to the generosity of the Dudley Family, the First Prize has been increased to $2000. There will still be a People’s Choice award of $500.
Please note that the closing date for entries this year will be Saturday the 21nd of June 2025Opening night is Friday 18th July 7pm at the Hills Hub, Emerald
Also note, as per previous years, due to space restrictions entries cannot exceed 1.2m x 1.2m. Full details, including Conditions of Entry, are available on the Entry Form.
In early November we had Trudy Rice conduct a workshop in Gelli Plate printmaking. This is a type of mono printmaking where you don’t need a press. Unlike some other types of printmaking where it’s very precise or technical in Gelli plate you can be more experimental and free to be intuitive using organic shapes, stencils or plant leaves.
Over the months from September to November we had Geoff Sargeant conducting a variety of workshops in the techniques of coloured pencil. If you’ve been to our annual Art Exhibition over Cup weekend you would have admired his intricate coloured pencil artworks which he has mastered over the last 30 years. Geoff was very generous with his time by providing a free demonstration to explore the variety of coloured pencils, papers and techniques. The following weekend he provided a follow up workshop where you could work from a photo to explore from the introduction to a finished piece. The students learned so much in terms of techniques, types of paper and pencils and were eager to get together again for a review or critique of their work in November when Geoff continued to help them achieve their goals in mastering this medium.
