THE ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
CELEBRATING 10 YEARS
Acknowledgements
PLC Sydney and Adelaide Perry Gallery would like to acknowledge Ms Anita Ellis, Director of The Croydon (2001-2011) for her
initial vision of establishing a drawing prize at the College. Thank you to Mr Andrew Paxton, Mrs Karmen Martin, PLC Sydney
Parents and Friends’ Association, and staff and students of The Croydon, Centre for Art, Design and Technology. Thank you to all
of the artists who have entered and have had their works selected as finalists for the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing (20062015) and to our friends of the Gallery for their continued support.
All images © of the artist. Text © Adelaide Perry Gallery.
Photography by Keith Saunders Photography except pages 1, 13, 14, 15 and 16.
Cover image: Susan J. White, Hawkesbury Acrylic ink on paper, 2013
PRINCIPAL’S WELCOME
One of the phrases that my wife and I valued as we
raised our children was ‘significant others’. We loved
having a young family: taking the time to read and pray,
to show them the world and to play with them. Yet we
knew also that they would need a community around
them. We could only teach them a little of what they
would need to know.
When students see the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing
exhibition of finalists, it is like they are engaging with a
community of ‘significant others’. Instead of perceiving
drawing according to the parameters of their short
life experience, they have their minds opened to the
thoughts and techniques of very creative people. They
learn to innovate. They learn to take risks.
The Adelaide Perry Prize has been part of PLC Sydney
for 10 years. 10 years of innovation. 10 years of student
minds being enlivened. This is worthy of celebration.
Thank you for being part of our community and for your
support for this venture. You are assisting us to grow
young minds.
Dr Paul Burgis
Principal, PLC Sydney
Adelaide Perry, Aunt
Pencil on paper (circa 1930s)
INTRODUCTION
Drawing is a surprisingly difficult term to define
and sparks enlivened debate by art enthusiasts,
particularly in relation to drawing prizes in this
country.
What is agreed upon, however, is that the practice of
drawing is a founding and essential principle within
visual arts education; essential in the tool box for any
artist, despite the increasing dominance of new media
in the ever changing contemporary art world. Drawing,
is and will continue to be valued as an art form with
the ability to capture, imagine and reveal truths like no
other.
PLC Sydney is committed to offering an exceptional
visual arts education to students. The Adelaide Perry
Prize for Drawing finalists exhibition engages them
directly with the professional practice of living, working
artists.
In 2015, we are thrilled to celebrate the 10 year
anniversary of the Prize.
On behalf of the Gallery and the participating artists, I
would like to express sincere gratitude to PLC Sydney
for presenting such a wonderful opportunity for artists
and providing an exemplary educational resource for
our students. Without this continued support, the Prize
would not have continued to flourish. To mark the
occasion, we have increased the winning Prize money
to $25,000 (acquisitive) with the support of PLC Sydney
Principal Dr Paul Burgis and the continued annual
commitment of the Parents & Friends’ Association.
From its inception in 2006 (under the Direction of the
late Anita Ellis), the Prize has become firmly established
as of one of Australia’s premier art awards and
esteemed drawing prizes. Ours is a truly democratic
prize; attracting close to 500 entries from unknown,
emerging and established artists from across Australia
each year.
The Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing does not seek to
define drawing but rather invites eminent judges with
vast experience in the field to apply their experience
and wisdom as artist, curator or gallery director to the
current crop of entries in selecting the most successful
drawing for that year.
Over the past 10 years the Gallery has been honoured
to entrust this difficult decision to invited judges;
Hendrik Kolenberg, Aida Tomescu, Terence Maloon,
Deborah Edwards, Cathy Leahy, Kerrie Lester, John
McDonald, Jenny Sages, Edmund Capon and Peter
Kingston. These works, now part of the PLC Sydney
Collection, demonstrate not only the discerning tastes
of the judges but also the vast range of approaches
to the discipline of drawing. The Collection, expanded
annually with these contemporary Australian drawings,
forms a legacy for students of the College for years to
come.
Miss Adelaide Elizabeth Perry, PLC Sydney’s Art Mistress
(1930 -1962), namesake of the Gallery and the Prize,
respected painter, draughtswoman and printmaker, is
fondly remembered as a passionate art educator who
taught and inspired generations of young women.
Adelaide Perry wrote in the PLC publication Aurora
Australis in 1951 that `A good picture does not allow itself
to be dismissed in a glance. It may have to be studied or
at least looked at several times before it can be fully seen.’
I am certain she would agree that this is true for the
following works selected as winners for the Adelaide
Perry Prize for Drawing over the last decade.
Ms Jo Knight
Curator, Adelaide Perry Gallery
WINNERS
2006
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
1.
Rachel Ellis
Living Room Window
Charcoal and wash on paper
108 cm x 75.5 cm
Judge: Hendrik Kolenberg
2007
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
2.
Joe Frost (aeq)
The Back of the City
Pencil and pastel on paper
56 cm x 76 cm
Judge: Aida Tomescu
2007
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
3.
John Fitzgibbon (aeq)
Woman on a stool
Pencil on paper
116 cm x 92 cm
Judge: Aida Tomescu
2008
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
4.
Julie Harris
Views #1
Ink, charcoal and conte on paper on canvas
77 cm x 117 cm
Judge: Terence Maloon
2009
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
5.
Ken Searle
Midnight Shakes the Memory
Pastel and charcoal on paper
77 cm x 111 cm
Judge: Deborah Edwards
2010
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
6.
Danie Mellor
The Offerings (a custom ritual) diptych
Mixed media on paper
50 cm x 80 cm
Judge: Cathy Leahy
2011
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
7.
Karen Barbouttis
Weekly Reports: Drawings from the Museum of Life
Mixed media on paper in ledger book
25 cm x 38 cm
Judge: Kerrie Lester
2012
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
8.
Nick Mourtzakis
Untitled drawing, 2012
Charcoal and pastel on paper
65 cm x 95 cm
Judge: John McDonald
2013
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
9.
Susan J. White
Hawkesbury
Acrylic ink on paper
100 cm x 146 cm
Judge: Jenny Sages
2014
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
10.
Wendy Sharpe
Self Portrait with Imaginary Friend
Pastel on Stonehenge paper
110 cm x 77 cm
Judge: Edmund Capon
Photo: Steve Cavanagh
2015
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
11.
Lee Wise
Self Portrait
Charcoal on paper
96 cm x 109 cm
Judge: Peter Kingston
Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing
WINNERS
1. Rachel Ellis, Living Room Window
Charcoal wash on paper
105 cm x 75.5 cm
2006 Judge: Hendrik Kolenberg
Senior Curator, Australian Prints,
Drawings and Watercolours at Art
Gallery of New South Wales
My intention was to convey the
sensation of what I saw and felt. I was
drawn to the light interacting with the
shapes and forms both inside and out
and the way light can transform what
we see.
2. Joe Frost, The Back of the City (aeq)
Pencil and pastel on paper
56 cm x 76 cm
2007 Judge: Aida Tomescu Artist
My work is of my local environment:
the city, harbour and suburbs of
Sydney. I draw in direct response to
the experience of these subjects and
to develop pictorial ideas. The drawing
exhibited here is unusual in that it
developed slowly, over a period of
months, and involves many materials.
3.
John Fitzgibbon, Woman on a stool
(aeq)
Pencil on paper
116 cm x 92 cm
2007 Judge: Aida Tomescu Artist
This drawing was done in soft graphite
pencil and turned out to have a quite
controlled feeling. This may have
something to do with the strong
rhythms evident in the figure as well
as resonances between the shapes
of stool, chair and figure. The young
woman is hunched inward, strong and
introspective.
4.
Julie Harris, Views #1
Ink, charcoal and conte on paper on
canvas
77 cm x 117 cm
2008 Judge: Terence Maloon
Senior Curator, Special Exhibitions at Art
Gallery of New South Wales
The process of these drawings is one
of building up and washing away and
the physicality of the paper dictates
the image. The layering of inks and
charcoals is continued until a visual
logic is reached, I then have the fun
of finding connections between them
and arranging them in some sort of
narrative.
5.
6.
These images show an exchange
taking place between men and women
of Indigenous and Western cultures
in eighteenth century Masonic lodge
rooms. The nature of the meetings
is not clear, and the heightened
sense of difference between the
Aboriginal man and woman and
their environment accentuates the
differences in approach to ceremony
within the images. In both cases,
there is an offering taking place, and
the images also explore a sense
of displacement - the institutional
replacing the natural, the new
replacing what was already here. The
work explores ideas of interiority and
the psychological spaces of how and
why we create the need for ceremony
in our many aspects of living and
being.
Ken Searle, Midnight Shakes the
Memory
Pastel and charcoal on paper
77 cm x 111 cm
2009 Judge: Deborah Edwards
Senior Curator, Australian Art, Art Gallery
of New South Wales
This work draws its inspiration from
the landscape and history of the
northern headland of the place which
Captain Cook’s expedition of 1770
re-named Botany Bay. Having chosen
this bay as their point of entry, the
newcomers developed a paranoia
that this was where others might
come, and displace them. As early as
the Crimean War, fortifications were
built on the northern headland, and
in the Second World War this was the
location of the main coastal defences
for the Sydney region. Here in the
bush where Sir Joseph Banks collected
his specimens, the dome-shaped
structures of derelict gun-batteries
sit like the skulls of some alien megaspecies. Inside these crania, black
camouflage paint has been scraped
back to the bone by generations of
graffiti-artists. Their imagery of sharks,
shells, jellyfish, harpoons, muskets,
and the Aboriginal flag makes a
haunting palimpsest. While I sketched
on site over many months, the
external landscape became part of my
own interior headland. Looking out (or
maybe in) through the window-slits,
appearances are deceptive. Thoughts
splinter. Skin corrodes. Memory
fractures. Time shifts in and out. Yet
occasional moments of luminescence
redeem the blackness.
Danie Mellor, The Offerings (a
custom ritual) diptych
Mixed media on paper
50 cm x 80 cm
2010 Judge: Cathy Leahy
Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at
the National Gallery of Victoria
7.
Karen Barbouttis, Weekly Reports:
Drawings from the Museum of Life
Mixed media in ledger book
25 cm x 38 cm
2011 Judge: Kerrie Lester Artist
The Weekly Reports: Drawings from
the Museum of Life, is an explorative
work of eighty-six drawings taken
from observations of some of the
vast collection of natural history
specimens accumulated by Alexander
Macleay and his family from the
early eighteenth century and now
on display in the Macleay Museum,
Sydney University. On viewing the
collection for the first time, the
museum showcases their contents
with their rich diversity and intimate
presentation of life in death, created
a desire for me to extend and explore
the collection I saw before me into a
collection of my own. Although initially
Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing
WINNERS
these drawings were intended as
research drawings for larger works,
the intimacy of the artist’s book
revealed a unique dialogue. As the
drawings developed through each
page in the book, they appeared to
communicate, through the simplicity
of the relationships between line,
space and place, the excitement I first
experienced when I chanced upon
the Macleay collection. From the
specimens suspended forever in a life
after death, the drawings have created
a new dimension of life. Death is Life
at the Macleay Museum.
8.
Nick Mourtzakis, Untitled drawing,
2012
Charcoal and pastel on paper
65 cm x 95 cm
2012 Judge: John McDonald Art critic
There are images which present
themselves to the mind in a form that
is instant and complete. One knows
that their source is not singular in the
usual sense but rather a resolution or
formation of many intimate thoughts
and impressions. This image, of a
hand reaching down into the space
of the horizontal and vertical plane of
the closed still life, presented itself in
this way. In the process of following
the thought image and its intimations
through a series of folly-like gestures,
the image of the arm changed from
female to male, child to adult, passive
to desperate. The development and
content of the drawing recalls a
statement read many years ago in a
text by Camus, perhaps on Nietzsche,
which I recorded and subsequently
have misplaced. In my memory the
paragraph referred to the nature of
tragedy as a closed space, perhaps
an empty stage, within which one
moves with blind futility, encountering
invisible obstacles, paradox, and
the absurd. The final state of the
drawing finds resolution close to
these thoughts and yet its equilibrium
necessarily resides in ambiguity.
9.
Susan J. White, Hawkesbury
Acrylic ink on paper
100 cm x 146 cm
2013 Judge: Jenny Sages Artist
This drawing is one of a series done
from memory in an attempt to evoke
qualities of a special place. I am
fascinated by drawing. Why does our
brain accept a simple line drawing
as representing something that is
massively complex? What identifiers,
elements and spacial relationships
result in recognition of a particular
landscape or object. While drawing
there is a joy felt. With a continual
internal dialogue, decisions and
choices are being made at speed.
You are just one step ahead of
yourself, creating a bridge into an
unknown non existent territory.
Sometimes I think it must be the way
a dancer feels, as you try to replicate
the energies and forces in nature.
Nuances of expression reside in the
tension, pressure and speed of a line.
Sudden changes of direction, sharp
short dashes, long languid delicate
and fading lines are heart felt. Your
breathing slows down and you slip
into a kind of meditation. Observer
and action fuse. And at some point
of balance or focus, that pleases your
senses, you stop.
10. Wendy Sharpe, Self Portrait with
Imaginary Friend
Pastel on Stonehenge paper
110 cm x 77 cm
2014 Judge: Edmund Capon AM OBE
Director Art Gallery of New South Wales
(1978-2011)
This drawing is about the meeting
point between imagination and reality.
As an only child I spent a lot of time
inventing my own worlds and this is a
theme I often return to in my work. As
an artist you need to be able to move
from the world of fantasy without
losing touch with the concerns of
everyday life.
11. Lee Wise, Self Portrait
Charcoal on paper
96 cm x 109 cm
2015 Judge: Peter Kingston AM Artist
Over a period of three weeks, I
created thirty self-portraits in charcoal
and pastel. Each one an expression
of how I was feeling at that exact
moment. This portrait is No. 7 from
that series, drawn from life, and
with full creative freedom. I had no
preconceived outcome, only to let my
emotions run free. This portrait was
the most intense drawing from that
series to create, and time seemed to
move as quickly as the marks that I
was making. I completed the drawing
in one session and felt completely
drained afterwards. Once finished I
soon realized that the drawing was far
more than my face; the marks were
representational of my personality
and at the epicentre was myself.
Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing
PEOPLE’S CHOICE WINNERS
2006
Peter Kingston, Louis of Ildemere 1 and 2
Charcoal on Arches paper
67 cm x 105 cm
2007
David Warren, Reclining male nude III
Pencil on Fabriano paper
70 cm x 98 cm
2008
Hadyn Wilson, The place where you live
Pencil and charcoal on card
112 cm x 96 cm
2009 Mark Hislop, Henry
Pencil on paper
56 cm x 42 cm
2010 Tim Allen, Braidwood I
Charcoal on paper
97 cm x 121 cm
2011
Petrea Fellows, Bush Cathedral Ophir After Gold
Charcoal on paper
90 cm x 120 cm
2012 Yanni Floros, Short Cut
Charcoal on paper
102 cm x 72 cm
2013 Ray Coffey, Ernie
Charcoal on paper
75 cm x 55 cm
2014
Joanne Morris, Love Joey
Charcoal and graphite on Arches paper
39 cm x 52 cm
Note
A $2,000 (non-acquisitive) prize is awarded to the finalist voted as the best drawing by the public at the close of the exhibition.
Located in The Croydon
Corner, Hennessy and College Streets
Croydon NSW
[email protected]
www.plc.nsw.edu.au
Phone (+612) 9704 5693
Fax (+612) 9704 5613
Post C/- PLC Sydney
Boundary Street
Croydon NSW 2132 Australia