The Kedumba Drawing Award 2023 exhibition of finalists work continues until Sunday October 1st 2023 at

The Kedumba Gallery

(Located on the Grounds of the Blue Mountains Grammar School, Wentworth Falls)

Opening hours: Saturday and Sunday 11am - 3pm

(and weekdays by appointment)

Contact: 0418414402

Instagram: @kedumba_drawing_collection_

Celebrating 34 years

After much deliberation, the judge, Chris Casali, has selected TeoTreloar's drawing “Still” and on the recommendation of the judge, the Kedumba Trustees purchased the drawing by Nic Plowman “Baby". Both works will become a part of the Kedumba Collection

Invited Artists 2023

Gregory Alexander

Honor Bradbeer

Anthony Cahill

Sophie Cape

Tanya Chaitow

Kylie Fogarty

Rowan Fotheringham

Michael Herron

Domenica Hoare

Michelle Hungerford

Johannes Leak

Rowen Matthews

Kellie O'Dempsey

Nic Plowman

Annika Romeyn

Evan Salmon

Teo Treloar

Phil Went

Anastasia Wiltshire

Charmaine Pike 'The World is Stages' selected for the collection by judge Kurt Schranzer from the 2022 Kedumba Drawing Award.

Celebrating 30 years

Lost Bear Gallery
98 Lurline Street
Katoomba

2 November 2019 to 1 December 2019
10 am to 5 pm

Participating Artists

Tony Ameneiro
Tobias Clack
Leonie Duff
Jane Giblin
Stephen Hall
Julie Hutchings
Kerry McInnis
Kevin McKay
David Middlebrook
Peta Minnici
Lesley O’Shea
Joe Penn
Andrew Seward
Robert Shepherd
Sally Simpson
Andrew Stattmann
Jodi Stewart
Claire Tozer
Steve Waller
Mirra Whale

Judges’ Comments

The 2019 judge Peter Boggs selected 2 drawings from the Award. The following is an extract from the judge’s speech:

At once this is both a beautiful and an interesting exhibition - many works fill both criteria. I congratulate all 20 artists on contributing to a fine exhibition of drawings.

I am obliged to select 2 works for acquisition that will enrich and enhance the Kedumba Collection.

Frankly it was a difficult choice among a number of fine works

The two artists selected are:

Peta Minnici
Looking in; Seeing out – Bundanon
ink

Jane Giblin
My son – an Amateur Birder
ink pigment & pastel

In my view both works are excellent acquisitions for the Kedumba Collection.

Particularly clear to me is an ambivalent uncertainty about what it is that we are exactly looking at? A narrative of sorts exists with both works, but it is unclear Questions without answers – a key benchmark for me.

I congratulate both artist and officially announce the opening of the 30th Kedumba Drawing Award.

Selected by the Trustees

Claire Tozer
Remnants
ink on paper

Full Speech of the 2019 judge Peter Boggs

Gerhard Richter the great German artist now in his late 80’s has moved seamlessly between figuration and abstraction over his working life. They are quite distinct practices within his discipline but they sit very comfortably with him. When asked once why he was inclined towards painting these lyrical romantic views of the French and German landscape - he simply replied "because I wanted to paint something beautiful".

Beautiful as a descriptor of art making has to a large extent slipped away, replaced by the moniker of “interesting”. Critics, writers and viewers, have learnt to use the work interesting as something safely received but with a wiff of erudition and importance. Beauty and solace as Richter said …” At the moment it doesn’t seem as if people need them”.

I mention this anecdote as a starting point in considering the work of the 20 artists invited for this year’s Kedumba Drawing Award … because drawing by its nature is an interesting pathway to discovery.

It can be beautiful of course but it is invariably an exploration of ideas and so the concepts of organising ideas, the imagined, the intended and desired is at it foundation, at its core … an interesting process.

During the Italian Renaissance, Il Disegno - drawing came before art, before painting, sculpture or architecture. It pertained to the world of ideas and the imagination – much more that to that of created objects.

And so I go to the works here presented in the year’s Kedumba Drawing Award.

At once this is both a beautiful and an interesting exhibition - many works fill both criteria. I congratulate all 20 artists on contributing to a fine exhibition of drawings.

I am obliged to select 2 works for acquisition that will enrich and enhance the Kedumba Collection.

Frankly it was a difficult choice among a number of fine works. The two artists selected are Peta Minnici for Looking out and Seeing in - Bundanon and Jane Giblin for My son – an Amateur Birder

In my view both works are excellent acquisitions for the Kedumba Collection.

Particularly clear to me is an ambivalent uncertainty about what it is that we are exactly looking at? A narrative of sorts exists with both works, but it is unclear Questions without answers – a key benchmark for me.

I congratulate both artist and officially announce the opening of the 30th Kedumba Drawing Award

20th October to 2nd December

Invited Artists

Kedumba participating artists

Jacqueline Balassa
Sylvia Beresford
John Bokor
Michelle Caithness
Sophie Cape
Ian Chapman
John Forrester Clack
Leonie Gill
Emma Heath
Margaret Hogan
Chris Hundt
Graham Lupp
Nadia Odlum
John Philippides
William Rhodes
Mary Ann Runciman
Evan Salmon
Kim Spooner
Noel Thurgate
Steve Waller
Michael Winters

Judges’ Comments

Jotting down notes while standing in front of the acquired works I realised there were connections between them that spoke to what I look for in a drawing. I had a feeling of each of the works being about one thing but also, paradoxically, another quite different thing.  Each of them started with an idea, a technique and a sense of their antecedents. In each the technical skills were readily apparent (the narrowing of vision within a genre, the many hundreds of hours necessary to refine those skills) and connected deeply to one aspect of what drawing can be. Skill, concept and precedent combined in unique ways however and the resultant drawing transcended simple categorization. There is a reward for time spent in front of the work and the possibility for deeper engagement. The acquired works all leapt out on first viewing and continued to offer new insights at the end of a full day of looking.

1. John Forrester Clack - ‘Head (Amen drawing)’

This is a work that is expressively powerful; both tightly wound and threatening to spiral out of control at any moment. It initially echoes Giacometti but then appears to go somewhere very personal. It has the feel of being process driven though always with a sense of the desired end result in mind. The range and energy of marks are impressive; creatively pushing the boundaries of the media with a discipline that suggests form, volume and depth.

There is a sense of personal anguish; of continually revealing and then erasing the self. This is not a comfortable drawing but it immediately grabs the viewers’ attention and keeps it.

2. Nadia Odlum ‘Engagement sequence (our intertwining lives)’

This work plays expertly with scale; a small and intimate drawing that also suggests something monumental. It seems to revel in contradictions - it is delicate yet solid, meandering yet planned. It takes the most simple of drawing materials - pencil - yet could equally be describing metal, or the play of light. In its careful and precise use of illusionary space it initially seems to negate the human touch - however there is also a playfulness to the work, a sense of moving through space. It speaks of a human trajectory - directions taken, changed or reversed.    

3. Noel Thurgate - ‘The face of defiance - Campbell Robertson Swann’

This work initially impresses with its technical virtuosity but quickly goes beyond mere skill to reveal an insight into the subject. The realism is also deceptive; the mixed media techniques reveal less detail and more of their own materiality as the viewer zooms in. In other words the realism has been hard won with a medium that doesn’t naturally grant it.

The subject has a thin lipped stubbornness to their demeanour, a hint of a waspish smile. The eyes reveal another story however; a softening, a sense of empathy, an awareness of aging.

Tim Allen

October 2018

Official Opening 16th December
at Orange Regional Gallery

Invited Artists

Deborah Beck
Honor Bradbeer
Chris Browne
Ray Coffey
Martin Coyte
Cameron Ferguson
Carrie Fraser
Jane Grealy
Robbie Harmsworth
Chris Hundt
Ian Mcgilvray
Rosalind McKelvey Bunting
Graham Marchant
Toshiko Oiyama
Claire Primrose
Luke Scibberas
Sarah Tomasetti
Teo Treloar
Trevor Weekes

Judge's Comments
The Judge Dr Derek Whitehead...

My choices for the Kedumba Collection 2017:

 

Jane Grealy: ‘Maria’s Garden, Summer Harvest’.

My first choice is a highly precise, almost photographic work, and on first encounter appears rather over-wrought, even visually indigestible. We need to persevere with our looking. But on closer approach there are points of entry and exit for my eye; it led me back to participate with it. In doing so, my eye wanders about the dark recesses of an under-growth which gradually elevates, by subtle passage-ways, to the light and to the sky. There is a free dramatic correspondence between the vertical and the horizontal in the form of intersecting frames and trellises, which give a heightened sense of visual expectation. The intricate perspective of the work harbours a dense and intimate domain, which is typical of over-grown garden scapes, resisting human containment. The juxtaposed textures of charcoal and pastel, weighty and air-born, lead the eye through a vertiginous profusion of vegetation. It is a strong, skilful and gently assertive piece, perhaps drawn from accurate real-time observation, and alluding to what the artist calls ‘a vigorous green wonderland’.

 

Chris Browne: ‘Ellipsis’.

My second choice is a work which evades a ready-made virtuosity by an astute handling of unfolding tonal atmospheres, all achieved with a refined use of charcoal. Once again, it is a drawing which rewards the eye, encouraging participation. We focus on the half-figure of a young woman ascending a flight of stairs past a man foregrounded in repose. The other figures, diminutive in size and placement, appear separated and dispersed within a spare architectural space; though there are some features which signal human conversation. Against the long shadows from a morning or afternoon sun, silhouettes of elevated sculptural figures, set behind the viewer, cast themselves toward the walls in the middle distance, seemingly beckoning those who would raise their eyes from common earthly pursuits. The drawing may depict an imagined scheme of buildings, or some real location, or perhaps a composite of the two. The work has admirable graphic qualities, and is an evocative example of chiaroscuro, of contrasting light and shade. It demonstrates what the artist refers to as ‘classical design’, and the shifting contrasts between the built environment, human movement and the ephemeral nature of time.

Full address given by Dr Derek Whitehead

The 2016 Kedumba Drawing Award is on from the 20^th August and runs until the 16^th October.

Participating Artists 2016

Tim Allen
John Bokor
Chris Casali
Maryanne Coutts
Todd Fuller
Gabrielle Jones
Gina Kalabishis
Martin King
Jo Lane
Rowen Matthews

Kevin McKay
Julie Nettleton
Stephen Nova
Edgar Schilter
Heather Vallance
Peter Wegner
Mirra Whale
Tim Winter
Gosia Wlodarczak
Lisa Woolfe

The 2016 judge Paul Delprat stated that the drawings this year were of a very high standard. He was very pleased that he had two days to decide on a very difficult decision. Below are his final selections for the Kedumba Collection of Australian Drawings.

Heather Vallance - Fall from Grace
Peter Wegner - Man resting
Edgar Schilter - Bound & gagged, Quantum No 3
Tim Allen Ann Thomson - Artist
Maryanne Coutts - Tree drawing #13
Todd Fuller - Pink Eclipse, If you fall I will catch you
Chris Casali - Fragmented

Images to come...

Please see our 2014 Kedumba Awards page for further details.