Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing 2024_Cataglue of Finalists

ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING 2024 EXHIBITION OF FINALISTS

23 FEBRUARY - 22 MARCH 2024

Exhibition Catalogue

Judged by Emeritus Professor Sasha Grishin AM, FAHA, art historian, art critic and curator

ADELAIDE PERRY PRIZE FOR DRAWING 2024

Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Sydney is proud to present the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing 2024, generously supported by the Parents and Friends’ Association.

In its nineteenth year, The Perry Prize persists as a bastion of the evolving landscape of contemporary art, specifically emphasizing the enduring significance of drawing practice. This esteemed platform not only provides a forum for artists to showcase their work but also the opportunity to be selected as winner of the coveted $25,000 acquisitive prize. The sustained commitment and patronage of PLC Sydney staff, artists, and the Gallery’s supporters have been instrumental in solidifying the Prize’s position as a pinnacle of distinction within the Australian art world. The exhibition featuring the works of finalists serves as an invaluable pedagogical tool, providing a diverse selection of subjects and technical approaches in drawing for scholarly inquiry. This curated selection not only enriches the educational experience of our students but also fosters meaningful engagement and discourse within the broader Australian artmaking community, illuminating the diverse and innovative trajectories that contemporary drawing practice encompasses.

The Adelaide Perry Gallery is honored to announce the appointment of esteemed critic, historian, and writer, Emeritus Professor Sasha Grishin, as the judge for the 2024 Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing. The unveiling of Professor Grishin’s shortlist in January revealed a thoughtful curation of 40 exemplary works, each offering a nuanced exploration of drawing practice characterized by a discerning blend of sensitivity and purpose. He commented that “this year there were some 310 entries from all parts of Australia representing some of Australia’s best known established artists and also some of the most applauded emerging artists” . This selection showcases the multifaceted nature of drawing, capturing the immediacy of the artist’s mark while underscoring the meticulous craftsmanship required to achieve finesse in artistic resolution. The collaboration between PLC Sydney and the Adelaide Perry Gallery extends sincere appreciation to Professor Grishin for his invaluable contribution to an exhibition that celebrates the diverse talents of artists across the nation.

Adelaide Elizabeth Perry (1891-1973) was a Visual Arts teacher at PLC Sydney between 1930 -1962. Her artistic career began in 1914 at the National Gallery School where she studied under Bernard Hall and Frederick McCubbin. After exhibiting with the Victorian Artists Society, she was awarded the National Gallery of Victoria Travelling Scholarship in 1918 where she subsequently travelled to Paris, exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Francais and studied at the Royal Academy of Arts, London. After resettling in Sydney, she became a founding member of the Contemporary Group and established her own Chelsea Art School, which continued for twenty years.

Along with her contemporaries Margaret Preston and Thea Proctor, Adelaide Perry was an advocate of the linocut technique. She was admired by many, including lifelong friends John Passmore and Lloyd Rees, for her distinctive style and technical skill as a draughtswoman. Her works displayed sensitivity to modernist ideals such as with simplified line, colour and form. She practised the en plein air technique and promoted the importance of drawing from life. Adelaide Perry was an influential art educator of her time having taught drawing, printmaking and painting including at Sydney Art School 1930-35 with Julian Ashton and Thea Proctor. Vera Blackburn, Eric Thake and Paul Haefliger were among some of her successful students. Her association with PLC began in 1930 when she started teaching art part-time on the recommendation of Roy de Maistre. She continued to do so for over 30 years until her retirement as Art Mistress in 1962. Despite being overlooked by public galleries for most of her career, today, her works are held in most state collections, notably the Art Gallery of New South Wales, National Gallery of Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, National Library, Canberra and the Queensland Art Gallery.

The Adelaide Perry Gallery was opened in her honour in June, 2001, and through the annual exhibition calendar , PLC Sydney continues to provide a rich and relevant Visual Arts and Deisgn teaching and learning resource for its students and broader community to enjoy.

Cover image: Adelaide Perry Aunt undated, pencil on paper, 32 x 26cm

Miss Jen Gair Curator, Adelaide Perry

Gallery

FINALISTS

Kim Anderson

A Singularity (7:09am, 19.10.23)

ink, charcoal and graphite on paper

70 cm x 52 cm

$5,000.00

My living room wall is transformed into a surface of shimmering beauty by the rising sun shining through the wisteria. It occurs to me that this moment will never be repeated as the earth tilts incrementally on its axis day by day, and the shadows will be ever so slightly different tomorrow. In the eight minutes and twenty seconds it took for the light from our closest star to travel through space and hit my wall, approximately 2158 people were born, and 1245 people died on this planet. Somewhere a war rages, somewhere a child laughs. Somewhere a mother grieves, lovers embrace, and homes are engulfed in fire and flood. Somewhere, someone is singing. I am transfixed for an instant, as my small, everyday reality slips away and there is nothing but dazzling light and shadow. And then that moment passes and, in spite of myself, I switch on the radio, and become swept up in the troubling news cycle of the day.

Andrew Antoniou

Night Calling

charcoal and Conté on paper

91 cm x 130 cm

$9,500.00

My relationship with drawing is a complex one and one I liken it to being part audience, actor,director and playwright. The narrative language I have developed with drawing is heightened and intensified with the use of symbol and metaphor, the language is informed by my interest in the idea of life being one of competing realities that exist within us. These are many and complex. They include the world of dreams , myth , memory and many others. My vision is give these realities a stage on which to speak of their world. To cultivate co-existence and provide drama and intrigue to a receptive audience.

Suzanne Archer

The Fish Out of Water

ink, chalk pastel and water on paper 140 cm x 91 cm

$10,000.00

My drawing The Fish Out of Water is part of a recent and ongoing project about the South Coast. This project was inspired by the invitation to be part of a group exhibition to be shown at Wollongong Art Gallery opening in March 2024. I have responded with enthusiasm as I lived at Thirroul on the South Coast when as a young artist, I arrived in Australia in the 1960s. This project has completely absorbed me for the last few years and continues to provide me with endless ideas. As well as drawing the landscape in situ I have interpreted those drawings back in the studio making large paintings. I have also collected a lot of inspiring objects from the places I have visited and made several large, finished drawings from the found bits and pieces of which this work The Fish Out of Water is the latest.

Deborah Beck

Inmates

ink, pencil, Conté, watercolour on paper 65 cm x 115 cm (8 panels 25 cm x 30 cm each)

$4,000.00

These drawings are based on photographs taken when prisoners entered Darlinghurst Gaol in Sydney between the 1870s and 1910s. Although intended to create a record of the identity of the recently convicted inmates, the photos reveal way more than this, often exposing the mood and state of mind of the sitters. They were sourced from the thousands of images captured in the Gaol Photographic Description Books held in Museums of History NSW Collection. As historian and archivist at the former Darlinghurst Gaol (now the National Art School) Deborah Beck has worked closely with these images for many years, researching the personal stories behind the faces, and now creating drawings of the people themselves. This series includes bushrangers and murderers, petty criminals as well as the notorious female bushranger, Jessie Hickman.

John Bokor

In the Salon

charcoal, wash and collage on paper 98 cm x 118 cm

$6,000.00

With my drawing In the Salon I am not trying to instantly grab the viewers’ attention, but to have their eyes take a slow walk around the room with more details emerging the longer they look. Drawing is a very important part of my art practice. I love how large drawings can have an immersive quality like becoming lost in a story. In my drawing practice I use charcoal and a wet brush to describe forms I often use collage elements that allow me to redraw sections of a work, adding a layer of detail that fractures the space.

Julie Bradley

Big pink moonrise - Mt Ainslie mixed media collage and gouache on paper 75 cm x 57 cm

$2,500.00

Julie Bradley is a professional visual artist working with the techniques of collage and drawing to create mixed media works on paper. Julie is a works on paper artist whose practice explores ideas of connectedness and express emotional states of being. In 2019 Julie was the international visiting fellow at the Ballinglen Art Foundation in Ireland and was also awarded the CAPO (Canberra Arts Patrons Organisation) Fellowship. Julie became the 2020 City News -Artist of the year and was awarded the -Canberra Critics Circle award for her“sophisticated and eloquently transmitted works on the powerful effects of place and weather”. Julie’s work is held in many collections and she is an accredited professional member of Craft ACT.

Rockface - Erosion ink and acrylic on paper 62 cm x 82 cm

$3,000.00

I work from explorations of landscape, focusing on it’s geological aspects. I work on site using drawing, rubbings of surfaces and photography. I then use this research material to work on a larger scale in the studio. This drawing uses inks and acrylics on distressed handmade paper, it explores a weathered sandstone rock face at Depot Beach in Murramarang National Park in NSW.

Foreign body at Pulpit Rock Bundanon mixed media and photomontage on paper 75 cm x 94 cm

$3,850.00

My work explores the subconscious and “the shadows of the self”, deeply influenced by personal experiences and various movements in art history. Dreamlike landscapes containing mysterious forms - some representational others more abstract - create a surrealist atmosphere which draws one in to see what’s been unearthed. Pulpit Rock provides a Boschian medieval backdrop for a corporeal darkness revealing fractures of light,staging meta-morphosised, hybrid, reborn versions of me. This emanates from my immigrant European lineage originating from medieval roots and interest in religion as fantasy. I navigate my shadows through drawing as a hybrid medium: watercolours, pencils, gouache, pigment sticks, watercolour markers and photomontage coalesce to form gold pan-like worlds where I sift my psyche and discover emotional and spiritual remnants of ‘self’. Using a variety of mixed media and processes, I intuitively explore the human condition and it’s secrets that surface through “a process of realisation”. My drawings are composite in nature, showcasing mixed media and photomontage at play between bound and unbound territories that exist between drawing and painting. Using elements of colour, simulated texture, mark making and animated form, I explore drawing and painting’s co-dependence on each other, honing interrelationships of their similarities and differences, hence highlighting the importance of what constitutes drawing’s relevance in contemporary art practice.

Kate Briscoe

Louisa Chircop

Matthew Clarke

New York Dreams

pen and ink on paper

50 cm x 35 cm

$1,675.00

I have been drawing ever since I can remember. I like to draw with fine liners. I like ink washes. Sometimes I work with an ink, brush and stick. This work is titled New York Dreams because it is one of my dreams to go to New York and to see an exhibition at the Guggenheim. I also want to go to the White Collumns gallery because I have a link there where I am included in their registry of artists.

Jo Darvall

Here we are in this Moment - Winged Realm pencil, pastel multiplate mono print on recycled found material on paper

76 cm x 110 cm

$4,900.00

I see drawing is the same as mark making, it is integral to my practice. It is what connects me to the material and the relationship with the artwork begins. The titles pays homage to avantgarde experimental poet Christopher Barnett, Barnett is a figure from my past as a young artists living and working in Brunswick Street Fitzroy where Barnett and other street poets would perform. Hawks flight Sea sings, wings realm Latitudes long lost - Christopher Barnett.

Dana Dion

Rational Exuberance

mixed drawing media and gesso on paper 76 cm x 106 cm

$3,800.00

My paintings aim to connect and express the experience of being in a landscape — incorporating the memories of the many places I grew up and lived in. And seeking to be part of it, to belong, to feel it, to sense it—capturing movements, sounds and fragrance.

Jacqui Driver

Thicket Thinking

oil crayon, water based wash on paper 114 cm x 56 cm

$2,000.00

Drawing thickets becomes meditative, they seduce me with their complexity whilst providing an outlet for mothering an adult child with difficult mental health needs.

Yvonne East

The gentle rocking graphite on paper 38.5 cm x 56 cm

$2,800.00

I am fascinated by the cognitive processes of observational drawing and work primarily with figurative and still life subjects. Passionate about arts education, I teach Life Drawing, drawing foundations, and expanded drawing practice at the University of New South Wales Art + Design (formally COFA) and Willoughby Arts Centre.

David Fairbairn

Isabelle No.1

acrylic gouache, etching and pastel on paper 130 cm x 115 cm

$15,000.00

This work is one of a series featuring Isabelle a young ceramist and musician who lives locally. Most of my previous drawings over the last two decades have focused exclusively on portraiture with a particular emphasis on the older generation. I have been interested in their varied life experiences and histories which I have attempted to express across various mediums including drawing, painting and printmaking. Isabelle is the first youthful subject I have attempted to express in many years and as such poses the challenge of capturing somebody at the early stages of their lives.

Kaye Green

Solitary tree with guardian moon ink, crayon, graphite pencils on paper 42 cm x 29 cm

$1,000.00

Clouds, the light, the darkness of an approaching storm are exhilarating natural moments. My work celebrates a meditation on elements in nature – on a rock, a tree or its shadow, a hill, the moon, clouds or the wind. I explore aspects of the landscape as a means of defining and expressing my ideas and work directly from specific locations, gathering information in the form of drawings and notes. Recently I was watching a storm approaching and felt excited and captivated. As I continued to monitor the storm I observed a solitary tree with a watchful guardian moon overhead. I felt a deep connection to both the tree and the guardian moon and realised the tree shared my feelings of nervous anticipation.

I love the directness of drawing onto beautiful paper. The majority of this drawing was created with my bare hands.

Jenny Herbert-Smith

Through the quarries with a hop, skip & jump found steel 96 cm x 107 cm x 73 cm

$2,200.00

Herbert-Smith’s fascination with discarded steel and her ability to find beauty in its twisted and bent forms led to a unique and spontaneous art practice. As she gathered these steel pieces during her walk around the deserted quarry in rural NSW, she could not help but feel a sense of connection with each piece. Working spontaneously has always been a hallmark of Herbert-Smith’s art practice. Whether she is welding steel or drawing on paper, she allows each connection to inform the next, creating a fluid and dynamic process. She often describes this process as a ‘dance with materials, shape and form,’ where her physical body movement plays a crucial role. As she expands and contracts the arrangement of parts, a sense of rhythm and static movement evolves,reminiscent of her deep-rooted love for music. Herbert-Smith draws parallels between her sculptural process and the improvisation of jazz musicians. In the same way that jazz musicians blend sound and rhythms to create a unique experience, Herbert-Smith blends material and forms to create a visual symphony that resonates with the viewer. This work reflects the artist’s intention to transform the industrial association of steel to a threedimensional drawing.

Todd Hunter

Morphe

charcoal wash, graphite, coloured pencil and charcoal on paper

42 cm x 50 cm

NFS

Drawing has always been fundamental to my practice as a way of inventing compositions and forms and sometimes a hint of narrative. I don’t consider my drawings studies they are images that through rigorous working must be resolved. Most often the forms are rendered from nature and a long consistent practice of life drawing. As in this drawing Morphe from the Greek for shape or form. It began as charcoal washes echoing natural forms that are allowed to develop into something more figurative while working towards a resolved composition that hopefully also carries a narrative of sensuality found in both nature and figurative forms.

Locust Jones

The ancient universe coloured pencil and ink on paper 124 cm x 124 cm

$11,000.00

I began a series of drawings at the end of January 2023 after a night camping in the Wollemi wilderness; Wiradjuri country: a culturally significant place for the Wiradjuri, Dharug, Wanaruah and Darkinjungpeople. After three hours of cross-country tramping through years of rain induced growth, we came upon a cave that we were fortunate to shelter in for the night. I awoke around midnight and walked out into the bush. I looked up and I was awestruck by the spectacle. A firmament of galaxies and infinite clusters of stars. I forgot about my normal life where my inspiration comes from the daily news. Instead, all I could see and imagine were the black holes, dark matter, satellites, moons and prehistoric plant shapes.

WINNER

Barbie Kjar No Expectations

charcoal, ink, graphite, Conté drawing on paper

56 cm x 76 cm

NFS

My drawing practice involves drawing people from life in my studio. I choose people to draw who have an inner creative world, who instinctively understand ideas and who excite me. I then work the preliminary drawings into more worked images and incorporate symbols which have a resonance with the subject. The drawing No Expectations is modelled on a drawing of Tiani who had recently moved to Melbourne from China. He had the tattoo “no expectations” on his left shoulder. He was experienced in martial arts and one pose involved him looking down across his right arm. We don’t know what he was looking at so the gaze takes us out of the drawing, I work with charcoal, graphite, inks and watercolour.

Yvonne Langshaw Biotic

ink and gesso on paper

76 cm x 56 cm

$2,500.00

My work is mainly about the living environment whether painting or drawing. I look for small details and patterns in nature for mark making combining many elements.

Rosie Lloyd-Giblett

The Cicadas sang their symphonies through the escarpment

ink, graphite and charcoal on paper

70 cm x 94 cm

$2,200.00

The Cicadas sang their symphonies through the escarpment was created during a month long art residency at Bilpin international ground for Creative initiatives. I spent long days walking, listening and drawing in the Wollemi National Park. I was lucky to spend a month across the road from the Park which is on the Lands of the Dharug Nation. This ancient sandstone escarpment is still recovering from the recent bush fires. The works seek to capture the umwelt vibrations one experiences through their hands, ears, feet and eyes when they walk through the landscape. Each animal and plant has its own world and vibrational sound. Using continuous line, incorporating blind contour and turning the paper whilst I draw facilitates the composition until it settles , choosing itself. I like to plein air draw and paint within the landscape seeking to capture the energy of the canopy and the undergrowth. I am not depicting a realistic view but imagery that is seasonal and sensory. I usually like to cover surfaces with lots of varying lines and vibrational marks. The colour palette depends on the time of year and the place, my ambition is to connect the viewer to the natural world and create awareness of its beauty and fragility.

Marco Luccio

The Struggle

charcoal and Litho crayon on original postcards

150 cm x 100 cm

$12,495.00

The Struggle is a drawing I made using charcoal and litho crayon over original postcards that I have collected mainly in New York City. On one hand the two look like they are in a struggle as the title implies. It can however also be seen as two humans supporting each other . One faces the past and one the future. I’m interested in the idea that we carry our past with us and we must embrace and or acknowledge our past to move forward.

Paula Martin

However fleeting, every raincloud leaves it’s mark

ink, pastel and gouache on paper 87 cm x 115 cm (framed)

$2,200.00

The directness and spontaneity of drawing supports my attempt to chase the gestures of a fading vision or moment. The intention of this drawing was to capture a “water composition”, the arrangement of soil, rocks and stones after a night of rain. Creeks and water are a common theme in my work. I draw inspiration and content from the textures, the rhythms and minutiae of the bioregion in which I live. The layering action of time and nature, the weather, the seasons, light changing, confusion of seeing, veils of mist, patterns within the landscape. My mediums and processes are varied and most often layered; paper, cast forms overlaid drawing, sometimes with ink, wax, paint,stitch.

Annabel Mason

River Walk

acrylic, ink and gouache on paper

40 cm x 48 cm

I love drawing - I love responding to the urge to make a mark.....the sweep of ink across the paper, the rub of charcoal, the loose line of graphite....it’s immediate and, for me, as an intuitive and process driven artist it is the spark that fuels my art practice. Drawing leaves its mark in my welded steel sculptures, in my painted abstract landscapes and even in my clay pots.

Kerry McInnis

Cow Sketches

charcoal and Conté on acrylic ground on paper 100 cm x 77 cm

$4,400.00

I consider myself to be a figurative artist, with aspirations to evolve towards a less representative, more expressionist interpretation of my subject, whether it be landscape or portrait. It has been some time since I dirtied my hands with dry chalk and charcoal, as I am usually throwing paint and other fluid media around the studio - usually onto canvas. I had forgotten how much I used to enjoy drawing, so this attempt to portray a herd of cows at Wilsons Promontory has been a delight for me. I did a number of sketches and paintings of these expressive animals while on a recent art trip to The Prom: These were useful additional references to the photographs that I have used in the modeling of the herd.

Noel McKenna

The Book Collector’s Wife ink on paper 29.8 cm x 21 cm

$3,000.00

This drawing has a nice dichotomy about itshe can be jumping in for pleasure or maybe escaping from something.

Tony Mighell Counterpoint Drawing gouache on paper 56 cm x 76 cm

$1,850.00

This work, is like most of my work this last year, has developed out of an approach to the surface of pictorial negation. This negation occurs to inhibit the picture congealing around fixed forms or images. The endpoint of this overlaying/cancellation is the disallowing of the mark, line or gesture attaching to anything recognisable. Still the urge to build the picture exists; the marks thus become more anonymous, somehow rhythmic (like in music) and in spite of not mentally fixing on any one thing or things there is an attachment occurring both mentally and visually to the whole surface. There is a recognition that with the overlaying of alternative rhythmic marks I am utilising a strategy more common in musical composition; Counterpoint.

Alexandra Mills Banksia

embroidery thread, bleach, potassium carbonate on sinamay and paper 100 cm x 45 cm

$450.00

Drawings have a sense of being in progress. This drawing of a Banksia ericifolia captures several stages of the plant’s life at once by combining and layering materials. The unnaturally expanded scale of the work is intended to give the banksia a dimension that allows human viewers to experience its life as part of their own.

Robbi Neal

When You Ran Through the Gardens pastel and Conté on paper

56 cm x 76 cm

$2,000.00

Drawing gives me a freedom I don’t experience with any other art form, I get swept up in the lines and the movement and forget myself. You cant get those pure lines with any other medium. Most often I draw with pastels because I struggle with depression and sometimes the more miserable I feel the brighter my work becomes and pastels have all those gorgeous colours that can light your soul.

Geoffrey Odgers

Footpath 1

acrylic wash, oil stick, oil pastel on canvas 152.5 cm x 51 cm

$3,000.00

Drawing develops the language I need to begin the long exploration from thought to the essence of my motif. If I use drawing as an independent activity, I do so as a distinct exploratory practice to understand the essence of the motif attempting to find adjectives amongst the marks and gestures, increasing my handwriting as an intellectual engagement to image making. I am fascinated by the implied and real lines in nature and enjoy to ability to create lines in the drawing without narrative and the restricting need for realism, suggesting the play and imagination. Creative involvement, for me, is to form a connection, to develop an enigmatic response to the beauty within. I follow Bachelard’s thesis that imagination and memory are the two elements needed for the creation of images.

Catherine O’Donnell

Afternoon Reflections

charcoal on paper

61 cm x 87 cm

NFS

At the heart of my practice are my interests in minimalist structures, the pictorial power of illusion,, and the pursuit of a shared narrative. I combine these elements to illuminate narrative within structure and to find life within the minimal. In my drawings, I aim to capture the inherent beauty of a sunlit room, a moment in time where the floor-length curtain takes centre stage. Through the delicate balance between light and darkness, I employ the nuances of charcoal to recreate the interplay of light and shadow, evoking a sense of tranquillity and introspection. The sunlight that spills through the window, cascading onto the curtain and floor, serves as a metaphorical representation of hope and optimism. Its warm glow illuminates the room, suggesting the potential for new beginnings and the transformative power of light in our lives. I invite the viewer to immerse themselves in this intimate setting and embrace a moment of quiet contemplation. The absence of human figures allows for a more universal interpretation,encouraging individuals to project their own emotions and narratives onto the artwork. Simultaneously, offering a space for personal reflection and emotional connection in the inherent beauty of everyday moments.

Vicki Parish

Like thunder skyward soaring charcoal on paper 50 cm x 65 cm

$1,800.00

While I paint and draw in many different media it is the directness and simplicity of drawing with a stick of charcoal that has been the best means of expression for this series I’m working through. These are drawings that begin as a response to a real landscape or to a real sky and then evolve to become quite different to reality through the need to use the individual qualities in each sheet of paper, to find the tensions of the shapes once set upon the page and then also to have a certain response to the times we are living in, to the sense of change, vertiginous and unpredictable, that we are living through.

Amanda Penrose Hart

Our Paths May Cross graphite, ink, gesso and gouache on paper 93 cm x 140 cm NFS

I draw every day - it sustains me.

Melinda Schawel

Blurred Lines I ink and graphite on perforated paper

123 cm x 93 cm (framed)

$6,600.00

With scalpel and drill in hand, my processes are slow and deliberate: carving, puncturing and tearing the surface of smooth, thick paper whilst retaining an illusion of effortlessness and fluidity. My submission entitled ‘Blurred Lines I’ encapsulates this delicate dance between action and materiality. Continually inspired by the minutiae of natural elements and eroded surfaces, I was specifically drawn to the exquisite artistry of a single feather in this series - its tree-like structure, lightweight and flexible but rigid enough for flight.

Jeannette Siebols

Tabula Rasa vi chalk, ink and wash on paper

105 cm x 75 cm

$3,500.00

The Chinese talk of ‘writing a painting’ and consider the written line to be superior to the descriptive line. When writing relinquishes meaning it approaches drawing and goes back to the time before writing and drawing parted company. My encounter with writing takes the rhythm of symbols, scripts and calligraphic forms to layer them in complex ways to give new impetus to drawing.

“Can any one people claim the Word, the Truth, the Ideal, the Message, or the Way by which to live? Or that the Tabula on which the laws are inscribed “were indeed to become Tabula Rasa, when we shall leave no impression of any former principles, but be driven to begin the world again”. (Sir Thomas Bodley in Cabbala, 1654)

Sally Simpson

An Uncertain Moment

charcoal on drafting film

98 cm x 107 cm

$4,300.00

Being underwater is a metaphor for the experience of living in this rapidly changing world over which I have no control, but of which I am part. I find solace in the moments when I lose a sense of myself as separate from the natural world. Drawing is my way of working with unpredictability and change, seeking to capture moments suspended between hope and despair, between chaos and acceptance. I seek an aesthetic expression of these elusive and mutable moments, selecting charcoal and drafting film for their versatility and transparency.

Wendy Teakel

Crop circles - crop cycles

pokerwork, scorch marks, collage, pastel on paper

150 cm x 100 cm

$7,200.00

The works I create are existential impressions of landscape in particular time frames and locations. Drawing is collaboration between materials, systems of thinking and chance observations while being in the moment. I am interested in how we make place, inhabit it and change it often with environmental implications. I start my process by walking through and across landscapes. In the field I sketch impressions and collect materials: Sticks,stones, grasses, soils, discarded wire, rusted tins etc. which become both a reference for palettes and textures when back in the studio. I marry conventional drawing media with scorched, scoured, stained and quenched paper surfaces to create a history of marks and erasures. My weathered surfaces experience elemental processes, mimickingnature’s hand through time within inhabited landscapes. My focus is on rural landscapes and how things sit, between humans and nature.

Claire Tozer Water Grasses pencil on paper

80 cm x 114 cm

$3,800.00

This drawing is based on a still bright lagoon near where I live. Fine water grasses rise up and out of the water, and their reflections on the surface are as clear as the grasses themselves.

Anna Warren Primordial

liquid and coloured pencil on paper

58 cm x 68 cm

$1,200.00

This drawing began as a series of small panels, each prepared with a base of marks created with Liquid Pencil, with no intention of defining recognisable objects. They had a family feeI as they were started at the same time, each panel being self-contained, but with the possibility of them being connected together at some point. I like to begin with random marks, draw into them with fine point coloured pencils and see what emerges, following threads that spark my imagination. Creatures appeared that may have come from the origins of life, hence the title Primordial. My work is informed by the natural world. I maintain a sketchbook to record my finds when camping in outback Australia but collect imagery closer to home as well. The small objects that are often unnoticed are of endless fascination. The sketchbooks are a source of reference material that is used to make other works when I am home again, the imagery often becoming abstract nevertheless with connection to the original images.

Steve Woodbury

What Fires Together Wires Together

charcoal and pigment on paper

92 cm x 126 cm

$7,500.00

This series What Fires Together Wires Together came from combining my research into the mind-body connection and how healing occurs at the Unconscious level. I was diagnosed with incurable pain that was supposed to see me in a wheelchair by the age of 19. Instead, I developed an intuitive process of healing and pain-relief In my case, art was employed to gain a pain-free, heightened unconscious state, to be used with the embodied creative gesture as a method, or tool, of mind-body connection. The resultant suite of works, used man’s oldest marking materials to reference man’s oldest unifying phenomenon of pain. Physically, these drawings are created whilst strapped to my inversion machine, where I delivered unconsciously-produced intuitive lines over successive markings. Neuroscientific research on brain wiring and mind-mapping; as well as the concept of ‘flow’ and the Zen-derived ‘NoMind’ proved crucial in analysing the state of mind beyond conscious thought that underlies both my recovery from pain, as well as my process of gestural mark-making art-practice.

Acknowledgements

PLC Sydney was built on the lands of the Wangal People of the Eora Nation. As we welcome you to our College today we want to recognise them and to warmly welcome any elders, past and present. Welcome.

PLC Sydney and the Adelaide Perry Gallery would like to express our thanks and appreciation to Emeritus Professor Sasha Grishin AM FAHA. We are very grateful for the time and expertise he gave the selection process, and for his participation at the opening of the Finalists’ Exhibition.

Thank you also to all artists who entered the Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing in 2024.

Thank you to our Principal Dr Paul Burgis for his continued enthusiasm and to Ms Shona Gawel, President, PLC Sydney Parents and Friends’ Association for continuing to support the Prize.

Thank you to our Gallery Manager Mr Andrew Paxton, Secretary at The Croydon Mrs Karmen Martin and Art and Design Assistant Mrs Nicole Rader for their administrative and technical assistance. Thank you also to Ms Jo Knight, Head of Visual Arts, PLC Sydney.

Located in The Croydon Corner, Hennessy and College Streets

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