Valley arts are looking good with three candidates selected for the Australian Art Excellence Awards (from left) Julie Ricketts, Di King and Christine Cafarella-Pearce.
By Kath Gannaway
HEALESVILLE artist Christine Cafarella-Pearce has won the top award in the 2010 Australian Art Excellence Awards.
Ms Cafarella-Pearce was one of three Yarra Valley artists selected to exhibit in the awards exhibition, an annual competition held by The Australian Guild of Realist Artists.
Launching Place artist Julie Ricketts, Healesville artist Di King and Ms Cafarella-Pearce, members of the Valley 10 Art Group, were among 26 talented artists from around Australia vying for the prestigious award.
All three are multiple award winners.
The women said it was quite a coup for the arts industry in the Yarra Valley to have three contenders in the awards, which require each artist to submit three paintings. The final decision is made on the quality of all three.
One of Ms Cafarella-Pearce’s paintings Changing Seasons depicts a local lady and her two-year-old, the other was a landscape Yarra in Flood and the third Deep Shadow was of kookaburras and won the award for best painting and the Packing Case award.
Ms Cafarella-Pearce, a workshop tutor, art judge and gallery owner, has won many awards.
“I’m always looking for colour and compositional keys, such as triangles, lead-ins, brushstrokes and rhythms to guide the viewer into and around my painting.
“I want them to see what I see,” she said.
