{"id":111721,"date":"2026-02-21T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-20T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bendigotimes\/?p=111721"},"modified":"2026-02-20T00:45:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T13:45:32","slug":"marathon-painting-effort-earns-top-arts-honour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bendigotimes\/news\/marathon-painting-effort-earns-top-arts-honour\/","title":{"rendered":"Marathon painting effort earns Top Arts honour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>BUDDING artist and Bendigo Senior Secondary College student Geordie Williamson has trumped thousands of other entrants from around the state after his painting, Allegory of a Blanket, was selected for Top Arts 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The annual exhibition provides a platform for emerging artists from across the state who are completing their VCE studies to showcase their skills, enthusiasm, and creativity.<\/p>\n<p>This year it highlights the increasingly innovative use of materials and techniques employed by 2025 VCE studies in Art Making and Exhibiting, and Art Creative Practice students.<\/p>\n<p>The exhibition will be held at the National Gallery of Victoria&#8217;s Design Studio at Federation Square in Melbourne from Friday 13 March to Sunday 19 July.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_30038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-30038\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-30038\" src=\"https:\/\/static.timesnewsgroup.com.au\/prod\/uploads\/sites\/24\/2026\/02\/GW2_81037.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"539\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-30038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The oil painting on stretched cotton canvas took around 65 hours to complete.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Williamson said he was &#8220;beyond thrilled&#8221; when he found out that his work, an oil painting on stretched cotton canvas that took around 65 hours to complete, had been selected.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was very excited when I heard &#8211; not only for me, but also for my teachers,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>The support from his teachers and fellow students &#8211; particularly those in BSSC&#8217;s art department &#8211; has also meant the world to Williamson.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Marcus (Patching) is such a fantastic teacher and I think the achievement is a testament to his teaching,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I love the arts department. It&#8217;s so nice to be surrounded by art all day; pieces that have had hours and hours of work and care poured into them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>BSSC Visual Arts &#8211; Learning and Engagement coordinator Marcus Patching added: &#8220;The Top Arts judges are very privileged to have such an outstanding artwork to select for their exhibition.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Find out more about Top Arts 2026 on the <a href=\"http:\/\/ngv.vic.gov.au\/exhibition\/top-arts-2026\">National Gallery of Victoria website<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BUDDING artist and Bendigo Senior Secondary College student Geordie Williamson has trumped thousands of other entrants from around the state after his painting, Allegory of a Blanket, was selected for Top Arts 2026. The annual exhibition provides a platform for emerging artists from across the state who are completing their VCE studies to showcase their [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bendigotimes\/news\/marathon-painting-effort-earns-top-arts-honour\/\">Read More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":187,"featured_media":111725,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-111721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Marathon painting effort earns Top Arts honour - Bendigo Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bendigo student Geordie Williamson earns Top Arts 2026 selection with his 65-hour oil painting to be exhibited at NGV Federation Square.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/timesnewsgroup.com.au\/bendigotimes\/news\/marathon-painting-effort-earns-top-arts-honour\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Marathon painting effort earns Top Arts honour - 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