People's Choice Voting: Queensland Regional Art Awards 2020
17aug(aug 17)9:00 am14sep(sep 14)5:00 pmPeople's Choice Voting: Queensland Regional Art Awards 2020
Time
17th August 2020 9:00 am - 14th September 2020 5:00 pm AEST(GMT+10:00)
Location
Your computer
Event Details
Place your vote to help your favourite Queensland Regional Art Awards 2020 entry win a People’s Choice Award. Selected artists will also be in the running to be included in
Event Details
Place your vote to help your favourite Queensland Regional Art Awards 2020 entry win a People’s Choice Award. Selected artists will also be in the running to be included in the Decadence touring exhibition, touring across Queensland 2020 – 2022.
People’s Choice Award Prizes
Adults: $1,250 cash, non acquisitive, thanks to TAFE Queensland
Youth (aged 17 – 25 years): $750, cash, non acquisitive, thanks to TAFE Queensland
Voting Process
You may vote once for an Adult Category artwork, and once for a Youth Category artwork.
- Click on the individual images below to view an artwork, read the artist statement, and reveal their voting link.
- To vote you must fill out the form and provide your real name and email address for confirmation.
- A confirmation email will be sent to your nominated email address to confirm your vote. You will need to click ‘confirm vote’ to validate and confirm your submission. If you do not confirm your vote through this email your vote will not be valid.
In 2020 the Queensland Regional Art Awards (QRAA) celebrates 10 years, a decade of rewarding and celebrating Queensland regional arts and the wealth of creativity and imagination thriving in the regions.
The QRAA is an annual visual arts prize and exhibition for established and emerging artists living in regional and remote Queensland. The program aims to provide a platform for further professional development. The Queensland Regional Art Awards is open to all Queensland artists living outside of the Brisbane City Council area.
Theme: Decadence
Decadence may invite notions of luxury and self-indulgence. It may evoke ideas of wanton excess or wastefulness, perhaps with a casual or deliberate disregard of consequence. Dependent on circumstance, personal definitions of decadence can shift quite suddenly.
Artists are encouraged to explore the complex notion of decadence within their own communities and households across Queensland – both in times of shortage, and in times of plenty.
Adult Category – Click on individual images to view and vote
End of Decedence (Vote for this Artwork)
Jasna Spiranovic, 2020
Artist Location: City of Gold Coast
Medium: Mixed media and collage on paper
Dimensions: 90 x 80 x 1 cm
Artist Statement:
I have been working on a series of work in responce to the COVID-19 pandemic. My focus has been on the word “Cancelled” as so many events have been cancelled; weddings, operas, functions , conferences, elective surgeries, festivals , jobs businesses and so on. Consequently, I’ve been questioning is this the beginning of the of the End of Decedence? Our behaviours have had to change as a society to adapt to this new world. In my art work I have torn up my mono prints and monotypes and collaged them into a drawing trying to make sense of thie old world and the new world of now.
Fragments of art work represent the fragments of life transformed into some sort of puzzle in progress as we live each day with unpredictable moments giving way to the End of Decedance in order to function and stay safe.
Photographer: Jasna Spiranovic
hoc est pulchritudinem – ac interitus et exitium
Cara-Ann Simpson, 2020
Artist Location: Toogoom
Medium: Pigment print on Ilford gold fibre gloss rag
Dimensions: 76 x 76 x 0 cm
Artist Statement:
hoc est pulchritudinem – ac interitus et exitium (this is the beauty – their destruction and decay) is from Furari Flores (Stealing Flowers) – a series of vanitas artworks exploring ephemerality and societal decay.
This series acts as a nexus between commentary on personal challenges and an outward interpretation of global news. They are an ironic reminder of the innate beauty found simultaneously in decadence and decay.
Photographed on black velvet and digitally arranged to evoke concepts inherent in medieval funerary art, this work describes the inevitable decay of life – a flower decomposing from the moment of separation from its life-giver. The spectrograph (visual analysis of soundwaves) reads the title – a reminder that while there is much beauty in the transient commodities that we immerse ourselves within, they, like life, will pass and may lead to self-destruction and demise.
Photographer: Cara-Ann Simpson
I am here (Vote for this Artwork)
Gayle Fleming, 2020
Artist Location: Goodna
Medium: Acrylic on paper
Dimensions: 29.7 x 21 x 0 cm
Artist Statement:
I am a late bloomer in the world of visual art. I am a self taught painter. I find with every piece a huge learning experience, and I am eager to develop my work. Acrylic, ink, pencil and watercolour is the medium I use. Line, shape, form and blending colours create my light free flowing style. Margaret Olley is one of my favourite artists as she reflected an influencers lifestyle that I feel I can connect with. My art depicts a vibracy in plant form and flora. Connecting with nature is my desire, as it is good medicine for my soul.
For this piece, I have changed my subject and technique to produce a more abstract illusion with a message that’s thought provoking and gripping for the viewer. Our personal connections between family and friends is what gives our life meaning. Although our indulgence and obsession with screens makes us all disconnected.
Photographer: Gayle Fleming
A Case of Commoner Salt (Vote for this Artwork)
Saren Dobkins, 2020
Artist Location: Tewantin
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 100 x 120 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
This speaks to the growing protests around the world against entrenched power and privilege enjoyed by the few. Paintings hung in hallowed halls are pulled to the ground by a common man who rails against the decadence that excess wealth affords them. Salt, a currency once mined in unbearable conditions has been replaced by moneybags. Equally sordid working conditions exist today, his becoming barefoot shows this poverty. The waving of flags, an impotent symbol of protest won?t change a law, but the turnout of thousands on the street just might, and so he marches. He has toppled a suited man, a symbol of modern excessive consumption. The protesting man moves towards the removing of another figure of power. Based on the portrait of George Washington, “El Presi Dente,” represents the apex of power currently held by a man of questionable integrity. The sold sticker shows he has Sold Out.
Photographer: Saren Dobkins
Colourful Heaven (Vote for this Artwork)
Elise Higginson, 2020
Artist Location: Ayr
Medium: Acrylic, gesso, artist ink, canvas paper, metallic artist powder, black pen
Dimensions: 70 x 50 x 1.5 cm
Artist Statement:
To me, decadence means something luxurious; a dreamlike state of mind such as the experience of being in another galaxy.
Some people like to treat themselves with decadent foods, such as the indulgence of going into a candy store! To me, it’s all of the above.
I also believe that texture plays a big part in the idea of decadence. This is why, throughout my painting that I call “Colourful Heaven,” I have plenty of differently textured surfaces to give it a heavenly, dreamlike state. It’s like walking on sand into lapping waves. Or could it be the delightful hues of a decadently coloured butterfly emerging from its chrysalis? Or perhaps there is a mermaid in this picture?
It invites a world full of endless imagination…the only limit to my art work is in the viewers mind. I want my painting to take people on their own unique visual journey.
Photographer: Quinten Swaffield
Meet Lenny (Vote for this Artwork)
Second Image of Artwork
Suzanne Furness, 2020
Artist Location:
Medium: Textile
Dimensions: 120 x 72 x 1 cm
Artist Statement:
Meet Lenny. During the day Lenny becomes Leonard, a Queensland Chief Executive Officer who is still wearing a full business suit and highly polished brogues for his ZOOM meetings. But at night he transforms into Lenny – freewheeling, colourful, decadent and so happy despite COVID-19.
Photographer: Suzanne Furness
Mottlecah, Eucalyptus macrocarpa study
Jenny Gilbertson, 2020
Artist Location: Bundaberg
Medium: Pencil on paper
Dimensions: 19 x 93.5 x 6 cm
Artist Statement:
In-your-face opulence; a visual stunner! That’s how I remember my first encounter with Eucalyptus macrocarpa, or Mottlecah. Innumerable encounters later this tough, ungainly beauty still stops me in my tracks. If I could grow it in my garden I would. Geometric spirals of tightly packed blue grey leaves spread in patches along dark spindly branches, winding towards the sky and trailing downwards. Soft white velvet fur on each new leaf contrasts with a smooth sharpness as they age. And the flowers; the shear size of them is astounding! They burst from their enormous gumnut cocoons as vibrant flashes of red, tipped with yellow pollen. Luscious. This indulgent display in a harsh, dry landscape seems to sing of absolute joy in being: a show of decadence even when things are tough.
Photographer: Jenny Gilbertson
Decadent Donald (Vote for this Artwork)
Sharon Kirk, 2020
Artist Location: Barmaryee
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 61 x 90.5 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
When COVID-19 became a pandemic in early 2020 and we were all directed to stay home and isolate as much as we could, we had time to indulge in a sometimes gruesome fascination with ongoing television reports of how the pandemic was playing out around the world. This decadent self indulgence continued as I watched intently the spread of coronavirus from China to Europe then the rest of the world and the human toll escalated. Becoming a couch potato was a wanton and excessive waste of time and highly addictive.
The media’s coverage of the President of the United States of America’s response to this public health issue became increasingly unbelievable to me. President Trump appeared a narcissist with total disregard to the consequences of his seemingly decadent ideology that coronavirus could potentially be prevented by injections of bleach, and that, contrary to health advice, taking hydrochoroquine would help prevent contracting the virus.
My work is a response to this self indulgent notion by President Donald Trump which had ?invaded? my personal space as well as becoming a source of continued discussion within my ‘cyber’ community.
Photographer: Sharon Kirk
Sources of love and light: waiting for dinner (Vote for this Artwork)
Adrienne Williams, 2020
Artist Location: Elliott Heads
Medium: Ink, graphite and 23.5 carat gold leaf on Arches paper
Dimensions: 22 x 50 x 50 cm
Artist Statement:
This ephemeral artist book is a tiny shrine to the studio and sofa companions who shine love and light into the lives of my artistic friends. As with so many artists, the upside-down events of this year removed most of my opportunities and with them, the lists of tasks and calendars of plans that give purpose and direction to studio time. At this moment, what is more decadent than play? What is more decadent than the luxury of having time to step out of the groove of a regular practice and play in the theatre of the absurd? The spheres of watercolour paper gifted to me, the gold leaf ordered in; engaging ‘first time’ tools. Suddenly there was purpose and direction! To lay precious metals across precious pet portraits was a joyful and ridiculous experience, connecting ten acts of love, to later be disassembled and gifted to the subjects’ humans.
Photographer: Sabrina Lauriston
Torn apart (Vote for this Artwork)
Tarja Ahokas, 2020
Artist Location: Ninderry
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 69 x 81.5 x 5 cm
Artist Statement:
Our lives are torn.
We are torn apart.
The touch is gone. We can’t indulge in hugs and kisses.
Did we over indulge in them in the past?
Was that the decadence in our lives?
Love is still there in the eyes and the smile behind the mask.
Photographer: Tarja Ahokas
Their Excellencies
Rachel South, 2020
Artist Location: Elimbah
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 101.5 x 101.5 x 35 cm
Artist Statement:
From an early age I had a paintbrush in hand. Ingrained is the urge to take an idea, an image, and make it creatively more, looking deeper to re-purpose beyond its original intentions.
“Their Excellencies” explores the theme of decadence in a way that takes the botanical world and embellishes it to a higher level of beauty and pleasure. A portal of exaggerated reality of nature. To have this composition as a reality itself would be a luxury. It was derived from a searching for wholeness, fullness and abundance. I am greatly influenced by my natural surroundings. The beauty within natural forms. The amazing structures, colours and textures that make up our country. We go about our daily routines, often blind, unless we take pause to notice. I hope this piece can be a historical reflection of the decadent nature we live with, and strive to retain for future generations.
Photographer: Rachel South
Piss off forever (Vote for this Artwork)
Wilhelmus Breikers, 2020
Artist Location: Urraween
Medium: charcoal and graphite on paper
Dimensions: 57 x 77 x 0 cm
Artist Statement:
There is decadence and “Piss of forever”, although wary of cliché narratives, takes advantage of the picturesque to suggest the uncertainty in life.
Photographer: Wilhelmus Breikers
“She’ll be right.” (Vote for this Artwork)
Catherine Boreham, 2020
Artist Location: Farnborough
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 61 x 51 x 4 cm
Artist Statement:
Two cockatoos operating a popcorn machine is not something you see everyday. In fact, I’d never seen it until I created this artwork. It would be considered a decadence in the animal realm. To me, it appears they both have their own self interest at heart and they lack self control. I doubt the consequences of over indulging ever crossed their minds before the fact.
On a personal note, my painting inspires me to put others interests above mine and sharing what I’ve been entrusted is so important to me.
Photographer: Catherine Boreham
A-tishoo Toilet Tissue Can You Spare A Square (Vote for this Artwork)
Joan Stratton, 2020
Artist Location: Weipa
Medium: Digital Illustration
Dimensions: 120 x 120 x 25 cm
Artist Statement:
Decadence; our over indulgence, our want for everything and anything – a social commentary artwork of a tattooed woman, her hair up in a bun, she is wearing golden toilet paper earrings as she is contemplating her unwise decisions of days past. Not of hoarding or whether she purchased too much toilet paper (stacked in the background), she worries about the rushed home done dragon tattoo on her forearm, was it worth the pain and suffering, will she be able to show it to her friends when she finally sees them? She also has symbolic tattoos on her other arm for protection the Celtic Shield Knot symbol and the words she currently lives by.
Photographer: Joan Stratton