Art student nabs $25,000 scholarship
A 26-year-old Sydney art student has won this year’s Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship.
Nathan Hawkes won the $25,000 prize for his work, Iceberg 2007, out of 104 entries.
Hawkes says he hopes the scholarship, which includes a three-month residency at the Cite International des Arts in Paris, will also inspire him.
“It’ll just be a chance to see work that I’ve looked at for so long and be able to use the studio to respond to that experience immediately and at the moment in time, rather than seeing things and being so far removed from the process of work or the chance to work,” he said.
One of the judges, artist Aida Tomescu, said Hawks’s work - a tableau of icebergs - was considered and thoughtful.
She said she was struck by the way each image changed as it “evolved into a new identity”.
Hawkes is studying the final year of his Bachelor of Fine Arts at the National Art School in Darlinghurst.
Elyss McClearly’s Two Figures was highly commended.
The finalists’ paintings will be on display at the Brett Whiteley Studio from this Saturday to November 25.
