Youthful painting is people’s choice

PAINTER Abbie Matthews has won the Ballarat Arts Foundation Eureka Award People’s Choice.

Matthews entered her work, Lucy into the competition, and BAF exhibited all submitted works in their first-ever website gallery.

BAF chair Paula Nicholson said the painting was an “emotional winner.”

“It’s a beautiful, soft work of a child. I think everyone can relate to the happiness and playfulness of the child’s face, taking us away from whatever’s going on in silly-old COVID times,” she said.

“At this time, people are looking for something simple that portrays beauty and happiness.”

Some of the 30 works from the 2020 Eureka Award show are still for sale at ballaratartsfoundation.org.au/eureka-award, with 20 per cent commission to BAF.

Mrs Nicholson said a “fantastic variety” of pieces were part of the prize last year.

“Anything new that we hadn’t seen since the last Eureka Award was fair game,” she said. “We ended up with many high quality works; ceramics, 3D sculpture work, photography, ink, and paintings.

“We had a great selection of works, which made it a very hard job for our judge, Fiona Sweet from the Ballarat International Foto Biennale.”

The main Eureka Award was received by Deanne Gilson at the show opening in December, for her painting Nyirram turt-barram (The Morning Star).

The competition is open to former BAF grants recipients. Visit the BAF Facebook group at bit.ly/3aqftEY.