Congratulations to Kerry Johns for her selection as finalist in the 2022 Goulburn Art Award with her painting Land Enduring, Namadgi, 2021, painted after the fires went through Namadgi National Park.
The Goulburn Art Award began in 1992 and is held every two years. In 2022, the Award coincides with the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery’s 40th anniversary. The Award represents the talent and diversity of artists working within the region. The Goulburn Art Award will be judged by Danny Lacy, Director, Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery. Lacy is an innovative and bold arts leader with over 20 years’ experience in the industry. Lacy has previously worked in key roles at leading contemporary arts institutions including West Space, Shepparton Art Museum, Monash University Museum of Art and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art.
Long after the fires went through Namadgi National Park, the hills were still bare of any green growth. The land seemed to have been badly sunburned, as though sore to the touch. In the distance the blackened trunks and limbs of burnt trees looked like tiny threads, as if the landscape was a vast needlework of fine black stitches embroidered over grey cloth.
I did some gouache drawings on paper from a vantage point near Brandywine Flat off the Boboyan Road, sketching my impression of the apparently lifeless hillside opposite. The bare ridge in front of me seemed like an immense sleeping giant, waiting, enduring and ultimately surviving.
I worked on a large canvas in the studio using photographs and my strong subjective impression of the sights which had deeply impressed me in Namadgi. Forming the painting from my conception of the land as a vast entity, I restrained the colour register and emphasised the oneness of the whole, crossed only by a few precarious saplings.
Fear for its fragility and the possibility of its loss was mixed with admiration for its capacity to endure. ~ Kerry Johns 2022.
The winners will be announced on opening night, 6pm Friday 13 May, 2022.
Exhibition Dates: 13th May – 18th June 2022.
Goulburn Regional Art Gallery,
Civic Centre,
184 Bourke Street
Goulburn NSW 2580