Reviews on Inside Out Upside Down Gallery Site
Norville Art Prize, Murrurundi, NSW, Australia 16 October - 7 November 2010
This exhibition runs till 7 November 2010, so there is still time to go and see it. The Norville Art prize attracted 125 entries for 2010, the 51 painting selected for exhibition show a standard of work that is consistantly high across a wide range of approaches to landscape painting.
The selection committee drew in a broad selection of work that ranges in approach from abstract to naturalist. There is much to be appreciated in the works, only one or two seemed to be short of the mark in imagination, technical skill and quality of materials. I particularly liked the work by Julia Griffin.
As with most prizes the Judge selected a winner that I personally did not feel warranted such high praise, being to me a mass produced work flawed in both materials and execution. However the works which Virginia Mitchell gave highly commended all justifed the choice, being engaging compositions, well executed and showing skill in the use of materials at a level far above the works selected for the Wynne Prize in 2010.
I recommend a trip to Murrurundi to see this exhibition and see the local art galleries. The town, its friendly people and the surrounding countryside are interesting enough to justify the long drive from Sydney for a weekend.
Just to make sure I make it clear, one of my works is in the exhibition, so I'm not completly unbiased.
author: Neil Miley