The work of a number of new artists fea-tured at the Cobar Arts Council annual art exhibition and competition at the railway station over the weekend.
Among the new artists featuring their work for the first time in Cobar was high school art teacher, David Pickard.
David entered a number of his works into the exhibition, three of which were imposing portraits (standing 1.2m high) along with some items made using wood burning and pyrogra-phy techniques.
Three of his works took out prizes in the Portrait Painting section including 1st and 2nd place and a Highly Commended award.
In addition to another high commendation in the Senior Open Art Form Any Medium sec-tion, David won two of the major prizes, the Thellie Wade Perpetual Award for Best Paint-ing and he shared the Joan Singleton Overall Award with Daphne Jermyn.
Daphne’s entries won a 1st place and Highly Commended awards in the Senior Open Hand-icraft section with Sandy Baker collecting 2nd place in this section.
Liz Whiteman collected 1st place in both the Senior Photography and Portrait Photography sections while Cora McKervey was the most successful in the Junior Photography section.
In the Open Art Form Any Medium class, Bev Anderson finished as the senior winner with Daphne Jermyn runner-up (and David Pickard Highly Commended) while in the Junior section, Joanna McClure was awarded 1st place and Leah McClure 2nd place. The pair also collected Highly Commended awards for other works in this section along with Tim McClure.
In the drawing class, Edgar Palma earned 1st and 2nd places with Susanah Wells and Dora Difilippo’s works being Highly Commended.
Dora won the Painting section with Thellie Wade the runner-up and Daphne Jermyn and Alice Potter’s entries in this class earned high commendations from the judges.
In the junior Drawing class, Pearl Blackburn finished as the winner with Edwin Palma the runner-up.
The Junior Painting section winner was Jake McKervey with Isla McKervey 2nd and Sam McKervey earned the Highly Commended award in this class.
First and 2nd places in the Junior Watercol-our section went to Joanna McClure while the Highly Commended award went to Leah McClure.
This year’s People’s Choice Award was won by a junior artist, Montana Grentell.
Cobar Arts Council president Lillian Simp-son said this year’s event was “small but suc-cessful”.
Lillian said they appreciated the support of Peak Gold Mines as the event sponsor.
She said the official opening on Friday night was well attended and guests enjoyed the en-tertainment provided by the McClure and Theakston families, and also the refreshments and nibbles served on the Cobar Railway Sta-tion platform.
Lillian praised the small band of Cobar Arts Council helpers who had worked hard all weekend and in the lead up to the event and all of the local artists who contributed works this year.
She said the committee hopes to further extend the annual exhibition and competition next year to include a section for novice artists in the hope this will encourage them to further pursue their interest in art.
