ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING 2021 EXHIBITION OF FINALISTS 27 FEBRUARY - 26 MARCH 2021 - Exhibition Catalogue Judged by Lindy Lee - PLC Sydney
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ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING 2021 EXHIBITION OF FINALISTS 27 FEBRUARY - 26 MARCH 2021 Exhibition Catalogue Judged by Lindy Lee
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING 2021 Artist and educator, Adelaide Elizabeth Perry (1891 – 1973) was As we see in the vast range of work exhibited, drawing can a contemporary of many of the nation’s most prominent 20th be one of the simplest yet most complex forms of artmaking, century artists, many of whom admired her distinctive style and encompassing a wide scope of practice. Although artists are technical skill as a draughtswoman. On the recommendation of Roy accustomed to solitary practice, the works in this year’s show de Maistre, Perry taught at PLC Sydney in 1930 and continued to are charged with an intensified energy seemingly inspired by a guide, inspire and support her many students until her retirement heightened awareness as a result of going further inward. During 30 years later in 1962. The practice of drawing was fundamental a period of forced introspection, not surprisingly, many of this in both her artmaking and teaching where she practiced and year’s entries offer a direct window onto the artist’s interior lives promoted working en plein air and from life. This is seen in many and most private moments. Personal truths have been laid bare, of her paintings, drawings and prints now held in major collections expressed in intensely scrutinised marks, and the works are including the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the National Gallery profoundly engaging. of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Queensland Art Deriving from the physical to the metaphysical, the works in this Gallery. exhibition range from the traditional to the experimental, and To honour her contribution to PLC Sydney, the Adelaide Perry everywhere in between. Some artists laboured over methodical Gallery was opened in 2001 and continues to provide a rich and and repetitive mark making as we see, for example, in Kate diverse Visual Arts and Design teaching and learning resource for Vassallo’s Colour Wheel, with its material density achieved through both our students and the broader community. The Adelaide Perry thousands of finely ruled lines. In Lori Pensini’s Whitening, highly Prize for Drawing, an acquisitive award of $25,000 commemorates refined graphite renderings of mother and child are overlayed and celebrates Perry’s commitment to art education and her with acrylic stippling that blur the images below and speak to ongoing connection with the art world. the loss and fragmentation of Indigenous families and culture. Maintaining the view that at the heart of artistic expression lies Others, such as Toshiko Oiyama combine the controlled with drawing, Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Sydney is proud to present the incidental. In Elements, the ink has flowed freely over the the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing 2021. With the enduring and surface of the paper before precisely placed holes were pierced generous support of the Parents and Friends’ Association, PLC and then joined by thread in a grid like configuration,symbolising Sydney continues to value and acknowledge this dynamic and the underlying law governing all that is. So too, in Meditation constantly evolving art form and support artists whose practice #13, Mitchel Brannan walked the precarious line between the highlights this. Now in its 16th year, the Perry Prize is one of the premeditated and the highly intuitive to tap into a deep state of most well regarded of its kind in Australia. PLC Sydney and the consciousness and arrive at a point where frenzied gesture and Adelaide Perry Gallery gratefully acknowledges our judge for 2021, vivid colour converge to deliver a highly impactful punch. Whilst Lindy Lee, for her vast knowledge and expertise, and to all of reflecting on impact and the metaphysical, no-one can deny the the entrants for their participation and support of the Prize. The force that radiates from In Love We Grow as One. At once tender exhibition of Finalists contributes tremendously as an inspirational and commanding, Craig Waddell’s use of colour, richly layered learning opportunity for our students and provides the community surface and the physicality of his mark making is captivating and with an engaging exhibition of varied subject matter and wide can lift the spirit into the unlimited, the poetic, the universal. ranging technical approaches. This same sense of elevation, or even an altering of state, This time last year, we were blissfully unaware of the uncertainty can be found in contemplation of Equine Traveller – this year’s and change that was to come. The notion that we could be kept winning entry by Peter Maloney. Through his work, Peter has physically apart, that for a time we would be prevented from inquired into the existence of being. He has sought to connect experiencing art and culture together in the same physical spaces, and converse with those that have gone before us and, in and was unfathomable. Yet, until recently, it was uncertain whether so doing, has accessed the infinite beyond. Combined with a we would be welcoming audiences into the Gallery space for this conscious engagement with material decay through the use of event. We are incredibly grateful that we are able to do so, for copper and iron oxides, Maloney explores heartbreak and hope never has it been more apparent that art is much more than a in search of the meaning in the mystery. The work is deceptive. means of documentation, a thing of beauty or a way of processing The understated nobility of the horse, the verdigris and the lyrical information from the world around us. Art can educate, it can heal lines are quietly seductive but the allure becomes mesmerising, but, crucially now more than ever, it can also connect us. entangling - and before you have realised, you are bound. Drawing is arguably the purest form of art. It is the most direct, On reflection, it really is no surprise that this year’s judge, Lindy intimate and confronting of ways to engage with the world around Lee, chose works imbued with the spiritual and infused with a and within us. Drawing is a way of visually thinking, feeling and touch of magic. To each and every entrant, thank you for allowing exploring and a means by which we can articulate that which us to share in your intuitive and deeply personal responses while cannot be explained with words. There is a real fragility and navigating this strange time. vulnerability in drawing when it is pursued in earnest - intuitively and honestly. The drawings exhibited in this year’s show are a Tiffeny Fayne testament to this. Curator, Adelaide Perry Gallery Cover image: Adelaide Perry sketchbook study, circa 1920, pencil and ink on paper. PLC Sydney Collection, donated by Elizabeth Swan.
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
FINALISTS
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Jane Alexander
Where the Wild Things Go (2020)
charcoal, pastel, ink, rice paper, binder medium
on paper
70 cm x 98 cm (framed)
$1,680.00
I don’t know where the wild things go but
during COVID lockdown I tried to find out. I
became interested in the juxtaposition of man-
made elements onto the environment. I have
concentrated on the layers and textures of the
landscape. My process is about the revelation.
I don’t know where I am going, but I meander
through my drawing to evoke the shifting light of
the landscape and to suggest a sense of place.
Margaret Ambridge
At rest
compressed charcoal, bushfire charcoal and
raindrops on paper
57 cm x 130 cm
$2,800.00
Primarily using charcoal on paper, film, antique
and gifted fabrics, together with rain drops and
bushfire charcoal I explore the intersection of
the intensely personal with the materiality of
drawing. My process involves gentle erasure of
charcoal layers to reveal the white of paper or
translucence of film. The diaphanous qualities
of charcoal dust on paper or drafting film
become a metaphor for memory, the essence of
experience and response to place. In this work
the quiet, unnoticed death of a tiny baby bird
illuminates human experience with its foetal
position and crepe thin translucent skin echoing
an age some of us may reach, but that it never
will. I wanted to help it, nurture it, ‘mother’ it. I
wondered how much of my response was learnt
versus ‘inherent’, and how much was received
doctrine. Where do my feelings come from -
indeed are they mine? Will some future nature
versus nurture discussion elicit a different
response in a mother who sees the same thing?
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Kim Anderson
The Witness
ink, charcoal and pastel on paper
76 cm x 56 cm
$4,000.00
I am fascinated by the physical manifestation
of grief and anxiety, particularly in relation
to climate change and the decimation of
fragile ecosystems. My drawings are based
on photographs I take of myself physically
interacting with rugged, isolated terrains in a
solitary performance that oscillates between
reverence, mourning, despair and solace.
This interaction takes place as a private ritual
witnessed only by a camera lens, and is then
translated into drawing through a lengthy
process of meticulous, emotionally-laden,
mark-making. This work arose out of a 2019
residency, on the Isle of Skye where I felt
vulnerable, humbled and penitent in the face
of nature’s vastness and resilience. By going
outwards into the landscape, I felt that I was
also going inwards to an internal ‘landscape’ and
a state of deep introspection. I questioned my
role, as an artist, in the damage we are inflicting
upon the natural environment: am I merely
a witness, a passive observer, or an active
participant?
Maree Azzopardi
How I wish I could lighten your burden
found bushfire burnt charcoal, found burnt
animal bones and Indian ink, oil stick on paper
76 cm x 96 cm
$3,000.00
I created this image in situ at a site called Mt
Banks in the Blue Mountains. It was made not
long after the Black Summer Fires in 2020
using, not only the art materials I had brought
along, (paper, gouache and ink) but also what
I found as a result of the fires. Burnt branches
were used as charcoal and the burnt bones of
animals were used as drawing implements. It
became a sort of ritual to help the scorched
earth heal and release the spirits of the
deceased animals as well as a way to ease my
own grief at what I witnessed.
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Peter Berner
What lies ahead
acrylic, coloured pencil and collage on paper
40 cm x 38 cm
$400.00
Drawing is everyday. Usually, with pen, ink and
sketchbook but not always. Sometimes the best
drawing are done on the back of menus or the
margins of very serious documents. Drawing
is a pleasure because it, for me anyway, is not
goal oriented. More often than not I feel like a
spectator to that which is unfolding in front of
me. It is improvisational and inventive. I have to
carry that sense of freedom into my paintings
because once I start “trying too hard” the work
lands with a thud. Drawing is exercise in keeping
the balloon in the air. I think this unplanned
aspect to the practice informs all my creative
expression across all media.
Nicola Bolton
Water under the Canberry Bridge 2020
charcoal on paper
62 cm x 62 cm
$2,000.00
I have a very strong sense of place and deep
love of the Australian countryside and a
particular passion for capturing the gentle,
romantic light of dusk and dawn using charcoal
and graphite. Canberry is the aboriginal word
meaning “meeting place”. We know this area
today as Canberra. Winding its way through
the heart of the Australian National University,
on its way to Lake Burley Griffin is a beautiful
little waterway called Sullivan’s Creek. It is a
place full of life and abundant with wildlife and
energy. Where there is water, there is a place
of meeting. The joining of water, wildlife and
people.
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Mitchel Brannan
Meditation #13
oil stick, ink, acrylic paint, pastel, enamel and
collage on box board
102 cm x 88 cm
$1,200.00
In my work I am developing a language of
abstraction in which there is a play between the
controlled and incidental, between intuitive and
premeditated marking. Through my drawings
I try to cultivate tension and awkwardness in
order to resolve experimental compositions
that often influence my painting and broader
practice.
Filippa Buttitta
Post Brain Surgery Recovery
graphite on paper
22 cm x 31 cm
$1,000.00
As Covid-19 took over the world, an alien
simultaneously grew rapidly in my brain,
affecting my eyesight - the very faculty an artist
needs to see and create work. I could not
understand why I could no longer draw or paint
well. In desperation, I visited my optometrist
who sent me to the Sydney-Eye-Hospital as a
matter of urgency. Regrettably, I learned of my
shocking diagnosis: the discovery of a GBM4, an
aggressive and rapidly growing brain tumour. As
Covid-19 spread across the world, the tumour
symbolically behaved the same way inside my
brain. Without warning, it took over my occipital
lobe, the area that controls eyesight. There is
no known cure for GBM4. Treatments such as
surgery to extract the tumour radiotherapy
and chemotherapy are used to prolong life.
Thankfully, my eyesight was restored after
surgery, without which, I wouldn’t be alive. I
subsequently created a series of self-portraits.
This drawing depicts my recovery process after
surgery.
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Carmel Byrne
Min.the
charcoal and pastel on paper
80 cm x 59.5 cm
NFS
Min.the is from the series, In the Grove, which
conflates modern human domestic experiences
with ancient peccadillos as told through Greek
Mythology. Judgements or opinions on what is
good or bad behaviour have been a constant
throughout the ages underscoring the view that
when it comes to human interaction, ‘everything
changes, nothing changes’. This drawing depicts
Min.the, a naiad nymph that was transformed
into mint as described by the poet Oppian -
Near Pylos, towards the east, is a mountain named
after Minthe, who, according to myth, became the
concubine of Haides, was trampled underfoot by
Kore (Core) [Persephone], and was transformed into
garden-mint, the plant which some call hedyosmos.
Furthermore, near the mountain is a precinct sacred
to Haides.Oppian, Halieutica 3. 485ff (tran.s Mair)
(Greek poet c3rd A.D)
My figurative drawings begin in life-drawing
sessions where models with acting skills, the
inexperienced or performance artists are
preferred, to provoke a mind-set that projects
deeper emotion into a pose for narrative.
Susanna Chen Chow
Meditation Chaos
ink on paper
107 cm x 78 cm
$2,500.00
I like to draw in a meditative way, allowing the
image to evolve as my inspiration flows. COVID
and its ensuing chaos has disrupted our lives in
many ways, changing our expression of normal
life. I have had to find different pathways of
expressing my love of landscapes.
This drawing reflects the affect this chaos has
had on my normal state of meditation whilst
drawing. Dark and gloomy clouds have crept
into my landscape, dominating a gentler and
more serene message, but an opening is left
at the top for what we all hope will be a better
future.
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Louisa Chircop
Self as Water Feature
watercolour markers, pigment sticks, water
soluble pencils,watercolour, gouache and
photomontage on paper
117 cm x 80 cm
$3,750.00
Paper. A sea of white that never fails to stir
and disturb me. Like a siren I sit on its shore
as my hybrid self imitates the very nature of
my practice: the idea of drawing as a hybrid
medium. An idea that captivates me in so many
ways as I explore the polar extremities that exist
between painting and drawing. I investigate
their co-dependence, and the interrelationship
of their differences and similarities. As the
siren within me sings, the horizon conjures
silhouettes, images shipwrecked from my
subconscious. They interplay through mixed
media and photomontage, using elements of
colour, simulated texture and animated form. I
navigate using lived and imagined experiences
with occasional traces of art history to blur the
boundaries between what painting and drawing
can be. Ideas regress and develop into images
of a composite nature. My psyche, awash on the
paper, represents the debris of experimentation
that lures the onlooker into my ҅gold pan҆
photo credit Peter Morgan
world. My spiritual and emotional being sifted
through a process of realisation. And I discover
remnants of ҅self҆ as I intuitively explore the
human condition.
To uncharted lands I sail.
Carol Cooke
Contemplation Cloth 64
textile embroidery
64 cm x 50 cm
$3,500.00
News items that were once a concern, took
a back seat as a new crisis unfolded. Days
blended into one, but making do was more the
norm. The first cloth to fall from the cupboard
became my colour palette as I drew, coloured in
and covered the fabric with drawings. Breathing
in sync with my needle and thread I was able to
focus on the task. In quiet conversations with
my brother, reflections on the past and future
allowed us both to respond to this new world.
His reflection of my embroidery became a poem
included in the cloth.
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Kate De la Motte
Self Portrait
conte and charcoal on unprimed canvas
133 cm x 95 cm
$400.00
My practice is an investigation into the external
manipulation and exploration of materials –
through mark-making, gesture and physicality
– and an internal examination of the changing
emotional and physical states that occur
through making work. Narrative elements
around this process are explored by recording
and archiving images and videos of myself
making work. This becomes source material I
use to evidence different points in time through
my process. I experiment with using abstract
mark-making to disrupt the figure to reveal the
more emotional aspects involved in the act of
making.
Amy Dynan
Sky talk, over the rise to the bridle track
pastel on paper
106 cm x80 cm (framed)
$3,100.00
This drawing was made during my recent Hill
End artist residency, at the end of the trying
year that was 2020. It represents the wide eyed,
expansive wonder that comes with opening up
one’s heart again. My feeling was, that at a time
when we all need each other and a sense of
camaraderie more than ever, let’s look up and
look out at the same sky that binds us. It was in
the spirited, nurturing environment of Hill End
that I found my lust for life again, made possible
by new friendships and envelopment of the
landscape. I was enamoured by the big, bold
skies of the region and worked to render the
feeling it evoked in me using soft pastels and
sweeping gestures. A sky in all its infinitude can
say all the things, hold all the feelings, wonders
and whispers of our innermost selves.ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Garry Foye
Grawin Construction #3
gouache on paper
108 cm x 78 cm
$3,500.00
My work relates to landscape, not in the usual
sense of copying nature, but the landscape our
society creates. Compositions are derived from
structures, surfaces and textures left in the
ever-changing wake of continuous progression
and replacement. Memories too play a large
part, as I attempt to evoke a sense of place in
almost all my imagery. The work that I have
entered, Grawin Construction 3, was inspired
from a recent sojourn to the opal mine-site at
Grawin, approximately 60 kms west of Lightning
Ridge, where I was influenced by the manner, in
which, the miners are completely self-sufficient,
making everything from huge gantries to
shanties for homes to the smallest intricate
tools made from scrap wire.
Todd Fuller
Max’s House
hand drawn animation, charcoal, chalk and
acrylic on paper
5.06 minutes
$850.00 [edition 3/8]
I utilise drawing as a democratic method for
connecting people, compelling audiences, telling
stories and reframing histories. My hand drawn
animations are labour intensive artworks which
draw, document and erase imagery across
thousands of stills. Max’s House was created
throughout 2020 during a digital residency
for Muswellbrook Arts Centre. Informed by
interviews with locals (via zoom) and with
reference material, I created an animation
about Max Watters, his life, legacy and gift to the
community.ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Peter Gardiner
Lost Bull / History
charcoal on paper
91 cm x133 cm
$4,500.00
Drawing as a tool for research and figuring out
ideas has always been central to my practice. It
has been mostly in the service of my painting.
Last year I started making my own willow
charcoal and began to earnestly draw in the
faint hope that I could take my sketch book
cartoons and build my skill into something
more permanent and settled as a statement
unto itself. What I have found has been such
a relevation such an obvious discovery but a
discovery nonetheless, that it is the most direct
and honest form of expression I have used.
Jane Gerrish
Homage to Sonia Delaunay
coloured pencil and pastel on paper
97 cm x 87 cm (framed)
$1,850.00
With a passion for light and a love of art history,
my drawing practice pays homage to those
artists who have gone before. Researching
favourite women painters, a photograph of
Sonia Delaunay’s Portuguese studio, circa 1915,
fired my imagination. I became fascinated by the
circular motifs decorating the surfaces of the
walls and still life vessels on her table. Inspired,
I made an abstracted work in coloured pencil
and pastel, black paper evoking the mystery
of her colour experiments. Resonating with
my own design background, Ukrainian Sonia,
a pioneer of Orphism, had a diverse practice
encompassing drawing, textiles and fashion.ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Minka Gillian
Force of Attraction
paint, pen, ink and embroidery on photograph
67 cm x 40 cm
$1,200.00
My work examines the nature of our bodies, our
relationships to the synthetic and organic world
around us, both mental and physical.
Anna Glynn
Native Dog Swallows Julia Johnstone
graphite and watercolour on paper
65 cm x 102 cm
$7,500.00
During the imposed pandemic limitations of
2020, I was able to take the time to research,
reflect and further reimagine our Australian
historical narratives. In Native Dog Swallows
Julia Johnstone, an imprecise Australian native
fauna silhouette ‘swallows’ a colonial portrait
to create a romantic antipodean anomaly. In
this work I reference two historical images
from early Australian artists through a naïve
engagement, expressing a nostalgia for a
somewhat fictional colonial wonderland. A
loose impression of the Arcadian landscape of
Richard Read Senior’s ‘Portrait of Julia Johnstone’
1824 is captured within the crisp silhouette of
a ‘Native Dog (dingo)’ by T.R. Browne / 1813.
The profile of the dingo is sharp, controlled and
disconnected from the surrounds. Contained
within the silhouette, the landscape is tamed,
a flower garden flourishes, a pup stares out
and the young woman is outfitted in an azure
gown unsuitable for the local climate. This is an
incongruous early European vision of Australia,
a physical imposition, transplanted.ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Geoff Harvey
Ash landscape
charcoal, ink, rust and pastel on paper
101 cm x 72 cm
$5,500.00
Black summer left a horrific scare on the
landscape and I have been drawing this
aftermath because I was like many people
emotionally moved by these events last
summer.
Nicci Haynes
Drawing.Dancing
video
3.32 minutes
$2,000.00 [digital edition of 5]
“If I could say it in so many words, do you think I
should take the very great trouble of dancing it? “
The intention of Drawing.Dancing is to make
explict the involvement of my body in drawing.
Although it is often the hand that does the
drawing, the driving forces involve my whole
body and I consider the movement as a gestural
language.
(Quote attributed to a celebrated Russian
dancer, in Richard Hughes’ introduction to The
Sound of Fury by William Faulkner)ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Beric Henderson
Counterpoint
ink on paper
78 cm x 108 cm
$3,950.00
I have a background in art and science. My
creative practice emphasises the importance
of preserving our fragile natural world and
explores how mankind interacts with nature
and the ocean. My recent series of drawings
is inspired by documented shifts in sea level,
toxicity, temperature and velocity of the world’s
oceans due to human mediated changes in
climate and environment. I translate some
of these ideas using ink on wood or paper,
using thousands of lines to create an oceanic
symphony that reflects both the rhythmic
beauty and changeability of our marine
environment.
Kendal Heyes
Dover
pigment pen on paper
76 cm x 56 cm
$2,400.00
In my drawing practice I like to work across a
range of techniques. In its production this image
is a kind of technical hybrid, using the Internet,
photo-editing, digital projection and pigment
pens. For years I have been interested in the
issue of refugees -initially Australia’s harsh
treatment of asylum seekers arriving by boat.
This has broadened to include related ideas
about the ocean and national borders. This
image is of the cliffs of Dover, which has a long
history as an iconic coastal border, as I imagine
them being seen by someone approaching by
sea. The image is made up of halftone dots,
like a close-up of a newspaper photograph, to
suggest that the drawing is a re-presentation of
a media image. This use of halftone dots means
the image is slowly revealed to the viewer,
and it plays with the idea that you can’t always
comprehend a situation when you’re too close
to it.ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Joanne Makas
White Willow
charcoal on paper
550 x 140 cm
$3,000.00
Drawing for me is an embodied meditative
practice deeply grounded in somatic
intelligence. Through the ritual of simple
repetitive action I seek to enter a space of
awareness. Pursuing simplicity in process
my intention is to find an expression of
mindfulness that allows the body to move
and create uninhibitedly. I work on the floor
with a focus on the movement of my whole
body and my breath. Flickering awareness
between the breath, body and mark - feeling
time as past, present and future. Privileging the
internal subjective experience of the body and
becoming aware of being aware. Ultimately,
I see my drawings as an expression of time
experienced in meditation that locates the
space between the body and the mind. The
works becomes a subject of meditation.
Peter Maloney
Equine Traveller
graphite powder, acrylic medium, copper paint,
acrylic paint, coloured carbon paper on paper
82 cm x 64 cm
NFS
Over the last two decades my practice has
dealt with linear abstraction in a variety of
forms. Initially, these works were produced in
a form of gestural abstraction that referred
to cursive handwriting. At times this linear
imagery suggested imagined conversations
with recently departed souls. These seemingly
spontaneous, ‘off-the-cuff’ works evolved
into more formal compositions using
paper templates, produced with the aid of
photocopiers. These works often incorporated
painted text – reflecting the evocation of words
in my earlier gestural imagery. This sense of
dialogue related to issues present in my own
experience of the world – sometimes deeply
personal and at other times social and political.
The carefully crafted linear imagery in Equine
Traveller interrogates the heroic quality of
mid-century abstract expressionism. Much of
my current practice employs a muted palette,
incorporating copper and iron oxide paints in a
WINNER conscious engagement with material decay and
physiological deterioration. While the image of
the horse suggests stamina and strength,
Equestrian Traveller refers to the inexorable
journey each of us makes towards mortality.ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Nick Morris
Brookes Street 2
packing paper, acrylic, oil, wax pencil and oil
pencil on canvas
76 cm x76 cm x 4 cm
$1,500.00
I like to leave my mind and thoughts behind
and get lost in time and space when I draw. Art
that moves me is art that drives an emotion,
a sensation perhaps a memory of one’s own
experience. As if in a dream perhaps in this
drawing it’s a memory of fear. Brookes Street
2 refers to a memory of a street in Point
Lonsdale where this psychotic dog would
do everything in its power to take a chunk of
flesh from passersby. With as much speed as
possible, on our bikes, we would lift our legs
up and hoped it wouldn’t get a hold of us as it
came running out of the property. Or is there
deeper subconscious meaning to this drawing?
The darkness and terror of the black dog of
depression. At the time of the memory, the fear
that I could never escape the beast.
Eva Nolan
White’s Seahorse and Kowari
graphite on paper, acrylic frame
20 cm x 20 cm
$2,750.00
Eva Nolan’s research investigates the
contemporary relevance of biological
taxonomies in our understanding of
multispecies relationships, and explores the
intersection of analogue and digital approaches
to drawing. Nolan’s speculative ecosystems are
created beneath a magnifying lens, entwining
a plethora of diverse species teeming with life.
Her practice challenges traditional scientific
illustration, whereby organisms were excised
from their natural habitats and preserved as
inanimate objects of curiosity. Nolan’s drawings
offer a contemporary reimagining of biological
illustration - one that illuminates interspecies
relationships and the innate connection
between all living things. White’s Seahorse and
Kowari was developed in response to the
2019/2020 Australian summer bushfires and
features threatened Australian native flora and
fauna.ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Toshiko Oiyama
Elements
ink, pigmented ink, pinhole punctures and
thread on paper
78 cm x 107 cm
$3,600.00
My art practice revolves around drawing.
Drawing is my way of asking questions that
cannot be answered through words. One
question I have been asking is what it means
for all things to be in the constant state of
transience. Elements consists of free-flowing ink,
pinhole punctures and thread. I explore the
nature of transience with organic shapes in ink,
and the underlying law that governs everything
with the grid formed by the pinholes and
thread. Although my question might be esoteric,
the minute relief created by the numerous
punctures on flat paper and the thread through
them, grounds me firmly to the materiality of art
and the physicality of my very existence. I draw,
wonder, and draw again.
Wayne Pataki
Christopher
graphite on board
100 cm x 80 cm
NFS
My entry is a drawing of my son Christopher.
He has emerged from childhood and is a
young man. His gaze is focused and thoughtful,
an adult ready to be taken seriously, he is
someone coming of age. His face is sculptured
and classical. He is the fortunate possessor of
a crop of luxuriant renaissance curls. I decided
not to be too realistic with the hair but have
some fun with the waves and strands and
twists of ribbons. The subtle folds of the T-Shirt
fabric repose comfortably over his relaxed
shoulders and the collar drapes restfully below
the ucipital mapilary. A final touch of some
youthful facial hair completes the portrait.
The background contains imagery influenced
by my recent “ Mindscape Series” - a frightful
scene of annihilation, the earth consuming and
processing - a young man with a conscience.ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Lori Pensini
Whitening
graphite on paper with acrylic overlay
50 cm x 75 cm overall (50 cm x 37.5 cm each
diptych)
$2,100.00
My pioneering great grandfather held land near
the Marribank aboriginal mission, (Katanning
WA) where he abetted the hiding of local
noongnar tribes from the authorities removing
indigenous children from their families.
These drawings reference the severance of
the mother and child bond, as a result of
Australia’s assimilation ‘whitening’ policy. The
base pencil drawings of mother and child have
been over layed with mother of pearl acrylic
stipples blurring the images in a deliberation of
‘whitening’ and fading to represent the loss and
fragmentation of culture.
Emily Portmann
Body Works II
pigment, hair, on paper
single channel video
(duration 9:34 minutes)
75 cm x 105 cm
$2,500.00
Body Works II is an exploration of the body in
which I become both the mark and the mark
maker through performative gestures and
the creation of a work in which the recorded
actions and the physical work speak of artist’s
practice as a fluid and layered process. In the
video component I navigate the journey one
makes not just in the layering of these marks
in relation to each other, but also to the before
and after gestures the artist makes as they
become multiple points of being, interacting
within a shifting period of time. Water is
expelled through my body via mouth and hair, it
is moved from one space into another, leaving
watery marks and embodying the performative
processes of my body and pigment covered
hair as it swirls, pushes, splatters, drips and is
pressed down into the water, where records of
past and future actions are layered and bleed
into the surface.ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Daniel Sherington
You cannot take liberties as if your ego was
cutting at you
cyanotype on paper
140 cm x 100 cm
$2,000.00
Drawing, in my practice is utilised as a traditional
framework for my work to operate within, one
which often facilitates an interdisciplinary approach
to making. You cannot take liberties as if your ego
was cutting at you was executed digitally. Drawn by
hand on a screen, the making process enacts the
historical work which is then able to be realised
as a cyanotype. The interdisciplinary nature of my
drawing practice allows me to manipulate the value
and meaning of specific works. In this instance the
drawing is allowed to be doubled and iterated:
alluding to the popularity and exploitive nature
of Rorschach type imagery, as well as evoking the
circulatory and narcissistic nature of historical
Australian imagery. A cyanotype, the work is a
literal landscape, being a product of both the sun
and locally sourced water. For me drawing exists in
a place of being both the preliminary idea and the
finished product, and is all encompassing within my
making process.
Fleur Stevenson
The Last Night
acrylic and spray paint on board
63 cm x 53 cm x 5.5 cm
$1,400.00
Drawing is my constant starting point and
remains at the core of my practice. I begin
with mark making to record a moment and
to capture my presence in a particular place
and time, by observing and responding to the
spaces, lines, and shapes around me. These
studies are then used to create stencils, which
are composed and layered with paint and
aerosols. The initial drawn image becomes
inserted amidst the materiality of other
mediums. The value of the process is visible,
but the essence of the place or person still
lingers, informed by the immediacy of the drawn
marks and foundations. This portrait of Amanda
Penrose-Hart was from the last night of my stay
in Sofala, sitting around her dining table with
my art girl-gang, as we ate, drank, and shared
stories. Rather than focus on physical likeness
I have committed to capturing the relationship
and the spirit of that moment in time.ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Hiromi Tango
Open Heart
wax, coloured pencils, textiles on paper
97 cm x 78 cm (framed)
$5,000.00
Circle drawing has become a focus for me as
part of my ongoing interest in nature/nurture.
The circle with a center is like a cell, one of
the basic building blocks of living things. In
my experimentation with this art form, I have
become fascinated with the energy generated
by the meditative act of circle drawing. and
have explored the potential for circle drawing
to build resilience within myself. This work
was created at a time when I was feeling
overwhelmed by the crises that dominated
2020. Working with a healing colour palette,
creating this drawing evoked a sense of calm
and positivity.
Yvette Marie Tziallas
Vesicae
pen and ink on plywood
89.7 cm x 60 cm
$2,800.00
Having been born with complications and a
congenital abnormality, I grew up in and around
the hospital medical system, often drawing while
in doctor’s waiting rooms or during my many stints
in hospital. A deep fascination with anatomy, the
human body and the way all living organisms are
formed to function began to develop, and has
become a key point of exploration in my work.
My practice is influenced by the way in which
large multifunctioning organisms such as the
human body are constructed using a repetition of
microscopic cells upon cells. In a similar manner,
my intricately drawn patterns are used to echo
this natural concept, building up larger formations
using smaller repetitive mark making. Through
this process, abstract and foreign topographical
landscapes begin to emerge, creating a reimagining
of these often mysterious worlds we cannot see
unless under a microscope. A visual improvisation
of patterns and formations evolving and weaving
around one another is created, as if taking the
viewer on a dissected journey of a living organism.
At the core, my work is a personal dialogue
exploring the dualities of life.ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Maryann Uren
The Simple Beauty of the Lobster Pot
graphite on paper
27.70 cm x 19.00 cm
$800.00
My drawings have evolved to become
predominantly about day-to-day aspects of
life and nature that often go unnoticed. I enjoy
capturing the beauty of everyday life from up
close, afar or from an unusual perspective.
The almost abstract nature of my chosen
subjects when viewed in these ways appeals
to me, as does the opportunity for ambiguous
interpretation. The inspiration for this picture
came from a visit to a seaside town, where I was
intrigued by the simple beauty of these lobster
pots lined up on the deck of a fishing boat
photo credit Malcolm Clarke moored at the jetty. Spare a thought for the
humble lobster pot. Its sole existence seems to
be all about waiting. Waiting for lobster season,
waiting to be taken out to sea and waiting
on the sea bed for its crustacean prey. Many
livelihoods are dependent upon it; industries
have grown around it. Here’s to the humble
lobster pot, so patient, so giving, so aesthetically
pleasing.
Kate Vassallo
Colour Wheel
coloured pencil on paper
76 cm x 168 cm (three sheets each measuring
76 cm x 56 cm)
$2,850.00
I design materially driven systems to work
within, focusing on process-orientated
repetition, optical perception and building
material density. My coloured pencil drawings
are constructed with thousands of fine, straight,
ruled lines. This repetitious action of mark-
making produces an abstract visual record of
time and labour. When making, I set myself
parameters that result in different outcomes
each time I repeat the instructions. In making
Colour Wheel, I plotted out three points on each
page using a random scatter. This form was
then filled with lines, using the same group of
coloured pencils in a different order each time.
Though aiming for perfection, the changes in
colouration, fluctuations in pressure, build up of
material grit and lapses in concentration form
a subtly uncontrolled texture within the strict
methodology.ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Craig Waddell
In Love We Grow As One
ink, charcoal, pastel, ash, natural pigments on
paper
142 cm x 108 cm
$12,500.00
This drawing is influenced and inspired by
nature and other forms from my surrounds, the
action paintings of Abstract Expressionism and
post-Abstract Expressionism. This work explores
ideas of the alchemy of the subconscious and
the metaphysical aspects of material itself; the
idea of chance imagery and the interaction of
the viewer’s own interpretation of the visual
world. It offers a window into an uncertain
time, a keyhole into a world that cannot be
premeditated, where the elements have a voice
of their own, where the material is not merely
a tool of exploration but becomes the driving
force for something new and unexpected.
Detail
Kathie Wallace
Nola Jones
charcoal on paper
70 cm x 50 cm
$400.00
Portraits are my passion. Drawing from life
is technically challenging and capturing the
essence of people is wonderfully satisfying.
As a visual communicator, it’s another form of
storytelling.ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
John Webb
LYRICAL LANDSCAPE #7
pen, ink, posca and tipp-ex on paper
94 cm x 137 cm
$6,000.00
My current work references some of my
favourite things; musical scores, archaeology,
Australian flora and fauna, rock art. Into this
mix I introduce Australian prose and poetry.
Hopefully, what emerges is beautiful, interesting
and different.
Diana White
the hand of the artist
ink, collage, solvent release on paper
26 cm x 15.5 cm x 1 cm Artist’s book
$400.00
My drawing practice has evolved from a fascination
with the human body and what lies beneath:
the hidden landscape. An artist’s residency in
November 2019 enabled exploration of the
Melbourne St. Vincent’s hospital archive and
pathology labs. While exploring the archive, I came
across a beautiful old ledger titled ‘Female Surgery
1905-1906’. The book was in poor condition and
age spotted. In a neat cursive script, a surgeon had
documented his patient’s surgeries. As my gloved
hands gently turned the fragile, crumbling pages, I
began to consider the surgeon’s hand, writing in his
ledger, carefully recording his procedures; traces
remaining of his artistry revealing the hand of the
artist. My artist’s book is unbound, alluding to time’s
impact on the ledger. Highly abstracted anatomical
ink drawings relate to the surgeon’s notes found
on the reverse of each page. A solvent released
photograph of the surgeon’s hand overlayed with
more anatomical drawings is embedded inside
the back cover. Three sides of each page are cut
referencing the ledger’s straight edges. Collages of
photos of the ledger and its spine appear on the
cover and within the book.ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
Natalie Wood
House Bound (chux blue)
trace monotype, ink and oil stick on paper
scroll-displayed section 97 cm x154 cm, (entire
length 360 cm)
$1,500.00
House Bound investigates the banality of invisible
labour, particularly women’s labour. This work
stems from a performance in a home made
detail
‘chux cloth dress’, symbolic of gendered cultural
expectations. It is a personal re-examination of
my own acceptance of a traditional gender role.
What does a woman accept if she dons the ‘chux
cloth dress’? Young woman and dress dance
together across a scroll, repeating a performance
of domestic labour. House Bound is a trace
monotype - made by drawing unsighted on the
back of the paper, picking up ink from a prepared
plate underneath. Some of the line work is made
by drawing on the reverse with a pen, these marks
are still visible and can be seen when the scroll is
partially rolled up. The artist fingers and fingernails
make the rest of the marks. The direct contact of
the artists body reflects the physical nature of the
young woman’s labour.
Maria Zeiss
The Afternoon Tea
mixed media on paper
85 cm x 117 cm
$4,500.00
Through this work, I have approached the social
issue of dementia by exploring memory loss
through the interactions between the afflicted
and their family members. This disease touches
many aspects of inter-generational family life. A
family, depending on their perspective, has the
power to gain from this experience through acts of
compassion and love despite the pain and sorrow.
In this drawing I have used gesture to explore how
a special encounter, like a family afternoon tea
in a Nursing Home, brings some normality to an
otherwise devastating experience. This drawing
is a social comment on the commonality of many
families’ experience. Drawing is essential to my
studio practice as a method of research and
development of ideas. I usually work perceptually
both in the studio and the landscape, however,
for this project I had to combine quick perceptual
drawings with the conceptual, as in memories and
digital photographs as my references.ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING
ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING Acknowledgements PLC Sydney respectfully acknowledges the traditional owners of the land on which our College is built - the Wangal people of the Eora Nation. It is a privilege to live, work, learn and play on Wangal ancestral land. We pay our respect to Elders past and present and extend this respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are present with us today PLC Sydney and the Adelaide Perry Gallery would like to express our thanks and appreciation to Lindy Lee. We are very grateful for the time she so generously granted us during the selection process and for the deeply considered, reflective remarks she shared upon opening the exhibition. Thank you also to all artists who entered the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing in 2021. Without you the prize would not be possible. Thank you to our Principal Dr Paul Burgis for his continued enthusiasm and to Mr Tony Nejasmic, President of PLC Sydney Parents and Friends’ Association for continuing to support the Prize. Thank you to our Gallery Manager Mr Andrew Paxton, Secretary to The Croydon Mrs Karmen Martin and Art and Design Assistant Mrs Nicole Rader for all of your hard work and professionalism.
Located in The Croydon Corner, Hennessy and College Streets Croydon NSW AdelaidePerryGallery@plc.nsw.edu.au www.plc.nsw.edu.au/microsites Phone (+612) 9704 5693 Post C/- PLC Sydney Boundary Street Croydon NSW 2132 Australia
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