Congratulations to Kerry Johns, winner of the 2016 EMSLA Art Award, at Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, NSW for her painting Flowers in a Window.
This years finalists have been selected by judges Nat Thomas, artist & arts writer/cultural commentator; Michael Fitzgerald, art writer & editor of Art Monthly Australasia; and Dr Julie Fragar, artist & Associate Lecturer, Fine Art, Queensland College of Art, Griffith University
We chose Canberra based artist Kerry Johns’ work Flowers in the Window, as the winner. Kerry has contended with the problems of how to best fill the empty space that canvases begin as for a long time. Sometimes you just can’t beat experience.
She combines a sophisticated palette, in greens and shades of purple, with an innovative interpretation of the genre of ‘still life’. Because at first glance Kerry’s work could be considered a traditional landscape, but first impressions can be deceiving and must be challenged.
Her inventive and economic use of composition, straddling as it does a domestic space inside a home, where the genre of still life most frequently reside, and outside into nature, where the ‘stuff’, (like the flowers) in the still life originate, Kerry’s work held our attention and captivated our imagination through some distance. Her work has ‘staying power’. ~ Natalie Thomas*
*Posted: Winners are Grinners: The 10th EMSLA award; Coffs Harbour Regional Art Gallery, Natalie Thomas. December 5, 2016 in Australian Art.(https://nattysolo.com/2016/12/05/winners-are-grinners-the-10th-emsla-award-coffs-harbour-regional-art-gallery/)
Exhibition Dates: 11 November 2016 – 07 January 2017.
Coffs Harbour Regional Gallery, Coff Street, Coffs Harbour, NSW.