Local artists shine at Dampier Art Awards

The art community gathered on Friday night to recognise the top talent in the City of Karratha at the opening of the 2019 Dampier Art Awards.

The awards, run by the Dampier Community Association, featured more than 50 works.

DCA president Gill Furlong said the grassroots awards were important because it was a local event for local artists, run by local people.

The main theme of this year’s awards was Red Hot Town and they were judged by Dampier local and 2018 Cossack artist-in-residence Tanya “Monty” Montgomery.

Robbie Palmer was the big winner on the night, claiming both the Red Hot Town category and the abstract category.

Montgomery said Palmer’s work was chosen as the winner in the main category for the way it evoked the contour lines of the Pilbara’s rugged country.

“The artist has selected warm whites, iron oxide and yellow ochre hues to beautifully mimic the landscape,” Montgomery said.

The last category of the night was the youth award, which was won by 17-year-old Ebony Bascombe for her piece Bikini Bod.

Montgomery said Bascombe’s selection of sorbet hues and bikini-clad figure in a slumped pose recalled that this was a teen from the Pilbara.

“The artist’s use of foreshortening with low viewpoint and heightened use of scale where the body is cropped tightly in the frame suggests that the artist is receptive to producing daring compositions,” she said.

Other winners included Deanne McGillan in Pilbara landscape; Bernadette Daley in portrait; Carrie McDowell in works on paper; and Geoff Saunders and Shaun Wigley in open.