With entries rolling in for the 2023 Mary Valley Art Festival, organisers have announced the judges for the annual event.
Sunshine Coast artists Llew Brennan and Ian Gunn join Tony Gill on the judging panel. There is still time to lodge your artworks as the festival entries close on July 10. The event hosted by Mary Valley Artslink runs from July 20-23 in Imbil in the Mary Valley, and offers $13,000 in prize money.
So there’s a lot riding on the decisions made by Llew, Ian and Tony, but they are well equipped to meet the challenge.
Llew Brennan says he was born an artist, painting and drawing from the day he could hold a pencil, and selling art by the time he was a teenager.
He has been committed to his own form of realism in his art throughout his 30-year career, reflecting on the rural nature and culture of the region that he lives in.
His work is represented by numerous galleries including Manyung Galleries in Victoria, Arthouse Gallery in Brisbane, Avra Art Gallery, New Jersey and Miami, Florida and Cross Gate Gallery in Kentucky.
Llew lives near the small town of Cooran and his art reflects the landscape and the people thatsurround his everyday life, as well as the people and places he visits in his travels.
Also based on the Sunshine Coast, multi award-winning artist Ian Gunn was born in England and arrived in Australia in 1991.
Ian`s art education began at the Cleveland College of Art and Design in the UK and continued for four years in Australia. He has participated in more than 50 exhibitions, solo and group, since 1996 and was an art educator for 10 years, turning to his art full time in 2004.
In 2022 he won the Du Reitz Art Prize in Gympie. He was selected for the final of the Sunshine Coast Art Prize (2022) and also a finalist in the Jacaranda Acquisitive Drawing Award (JADA) last year, which is touring until mid-2024.
Tony Gill, with his partner Jane Caraffi, were directors of Art on Cairncross, a commercial gallery on the outskirts of Maleny in the Sunshine Coast hinterland.
Tony has been involved with running commercial galleries on the Sunshine Coast for more than 26 years.
The couple started compiling art gallery trails very early in their business life, seeing the need for a united stand with their fellow galleries to attract visitors and locals to the wealth of
art available on the Sunshine Coast.
Tony and Jane have retired from their gallery but still play an active role in the visual arts scene on the coast. Tony has worked with the region’s tourist organisations and was one of the
founders of the now prestigious Sunshine Coast Art Prize.
He and Jane have travelled extensively and firmly believe that the Sunshine Coast is one the premier art destinations in provincial regions of the country. It has been said that the coast – and
particularly the hinterland – have more artists per capita than any other region in Australia.
You can find entry forms for the Mary Valley Art Festival online at www.maryvalleyartfestival.com.au.