Awards paint a thrilling picture

A fan-favourite art spectacular was finally able to hold its presentation ceremony over the weekend following the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

The Dampier Art Awards announced its winners in April, but there was no open gallery or awards night because of the pandemic.

This year’s event had 83 entries across eight categories including theme, landscape, portrait, abstract and works on paper, as well as 3-D sculpture, Indigenous art, and a youth category.

The theme was 2020 Vision and artists were asked to explore what the concept meant to them.

Dampier Community Association president Gill Furlong said she was thrilled to have held the presentation evening on Sunday.

“We are so excited really. This is our 10th year of having these art awards. They are a really important feature in our calendar and I think the art community,” she said.

“It’s a relief to be able to host this event. It’s a bit sad that we don’t have all our artists here but at least we have a little touch of them, the winners, the highly commended and our sponsors.

“The quality of work this year blew us away.”

This year’s award winners were Yvonne Weller, Sandy Featch, Bernadette Daley, Petrina Sladen, Tania Lindau, Shaun Wigley, Joylene Warrie, and Astyn Wigley.

Ms Weller said she was passionate about the environment and trying to educate her grandchildren to look after it so their children could enjoy it.

“You can see in my painting the earth below is clean and green; you can also see the wolf ready to take over the earth, if we don’t take proper care of her,” she said.