Drawing is the anatomy of my arts practice. Life drawing is particular in that certain parameters such as time shape the form. I have drawn at Walker Street above Lavender Bay on Sydney’s North Shore since the mid-nineties. Benedicta is a model I have drawn many times. Drawing from life occupies a tension between observational discipline and lyrical freedom that can be deeply rewarding and informs all my art making.

Artist Statement

Various States #4 explores the materiality of paper as a metaphor for skin. Like flesh, paper is delicate and marked by time; it folds, wrinkles, creases, and tears, carrying the memory of pressure and movement.
This drawing is from a series that documents the gradual transformation of a single sheet of paper. I repeatedly scrunched and smoothed the surface, recording each stage of its evolution. In Various States #4, the paper begins to degrade, revealing what it has endured: frayed edges, slight tears, and a soft collapse of structure as form gives way to fragility.

The Darling-Paroo Overflow in Western NSW is dry more often than not. The landscape is minimal, scattered perspectives, spinifex, saltbush, red sandy earth, nothing moves, there is beauty.
A scar, an ancient watercourse which is defined in some areas as white sand, quartz crystals, lighter than the red iron sand surrounding it, sits on the surface, blinding in the stark intensity of day. Occasionally a flat red rock on a vanishing edge of a pool, petroglyphs ancient and present.
A water tank, empty, it was always empty, now a decaying icon to the folly of trying to tame the desert.

Drawing is a way in which I can engage with the natural world. The immediacy of the mark making allows me to express, through line and material, the fragility and strength of what I see in nature, The delicate leaf clinging to the rugged gnarly branch provides the perfect metaphor for life. The ability to be vulnerable, yet resilient, connects me to the landscape in all of its wonders. 'Ornamental in Autumn', captures the moment of autumnal leaves barely clinging on as they flicker and dance in the thin Autumn light.

Embodied drawing is my door to 'no mind' – the core of my practice. This process of finding, rather than imposing, permeates my work. Through my engagement with digital and mechanical tools, into painting, each process passes through a filter of finding.
In this drawing I keep coming back to the negative space – the pregnant void of Robert Motherwell's 'open' series, the sense that the void is the work. Here void and line flutter between dominance. Calligraphy rehearses the gesture from a concrete intention; my process is the opposite – the gesture is the intention, from the body not the mind.

Drawing is foundation my arts Practice. Essentially, I enjoy the physical mark making and textures within my works. My drawing practice is largely inspired by David Salle and Ron Kitaj among others. My compositions are a culmination of historical and local forms which are juxtaposed and yet somehow work as a unique composition. I dream these images up when travelling through the central west region where I reside.

We wish to also congratulate the following artists who have received highly commended for their pieces.

Emerging Artist Award and Highly Commended - Laurent Pouzet

Congratulations to Laurent Pouzet on their piece Mother.

Artist Statement

Highly Commended - Roz Avent

Congratulations to Roz Avent on their piece 9 Drawings in the Theme of Red.

Drawing is at the heart of my daily practice. It is where I explore rhythm, colour, and structure with immediacy and focus. Working with coloured pencil allows me to respond quickly, embracing both chance and intuition. Edges shift, colours fall into unexpected relationships, and interruptions occur that I could not have predicted. These experiments may lead to paintings, where the same concerns are expanded in scale and gesture.

The drawings I am submitting reflect this process. Each one investigates the stripe as a generative structure—both a constraint and a possibility. I use it to explore variation, irregularity, and surprise. The element of chance ensures that each drawing finds its own resolution without repetition.

For me, drawing is both process and outcome. These works stand independently but also inform my paintings, building on fifty years of sustained artistic practice.

Highly Commended - Angela Hayson

Congratulations to Angela Hayson on their piece The Dancers No.5 from the series Entanglement.

Artist Statement

My early training in drawing has been a significant influence on my art practice, having studied design for commercial and public interior spaces in the early 1980’s. From freehand sketching to developing ideas prior to technical drawing documentation in ink on tracing film, using instruments of construction; rulers, set squares and a compass.
I gained rigorous training in technical drawing and notation, and hand-eye coordination which is invaluable to my art practice. I continually sketch ideas and notations in visual diaries to document my creative process and thoughts for art projects.
This work, The Dancers No. 5, may appear to be drawn using ruled lines and French curves for varying radius lines, however the lines, shaped elements and textural colour are all hand drawn and added organically as the piece evolved.