Yarragon-based artist Andrea Sinclair was awarded Best Gippsland Work, for her painting Bonfire at Yarragon South. The small oil on panel work impressed judge Andrew Frost for its luminosity and the way the paint had been used. He said, “It has that sense of place but also of light. It is ineffably Australian in its treatment, and conveys a sense of regional Australia. It’s not romanticising the subject, it’s about a real place. It has a beautiful ‘you are here’ feeling that we associate intimately with the experience”.
The John Leslie Art Prize is one of Australia’s most prestigious prizes for landscape painting. The Prize is named after the late John Leslie OBE (1919-2016), former Patron of the Gippsland Art Gallery. The continuation of the Prize is due to the generosity of the John Leslie Foundation. The Prize is staged every second year, and previous winners include David Keeling (2000), Vera Möller (2002), Mark McCarthy (2004), Brigid Cole-Adams (2006), Andrew Mezei (2008), Jason Cordero (2010), Tony Lloyd (2012), Shannon Smiley (2014), and Amelda Read-Forsythe (2016).
In 2018 the Gallery received a record 493 entries from all states of Australia, with the shortlist of 59 finalists going on show from 22 September to 25 November 2018.
Gippsland Art Gallery
Wellington Centre
70 Foster Street
PO Box 506
Sale Victoria 3850
T +61 3 5142 3500
Gippsland Art Gallery is proudly owned and operated by Wellington Shire Council with support from the Victorian government through Creative Victoria.
Gippsland Art Gallery acknowledges the Gunaikurnai People as the Traditional Owners of the land on which the Gallery now stands.