The countdown is on to the Girt by Sea Sculpture Exhibition which is to be held between March 11 and March 19, 2017.
The organisers of the growing artistic event are keen for local artists to be involved and to start thinking and planning about entering.
After all, it will be in their best financial interests!
For this next event, there will be sections for both sculptors and artists, for the first time.
Overall, there will be $74,000 in prize money for this event, making it the most lucrative in Australia.
Cr Mark Edwards has cleverly obtained the funding and has seen the event expand to a new level that will see more than $100,000 invested in the Girt by Sea over 12 months; a stunning outcome for island art.
The organisers, led by the councillor, are keen to attract both emerging and established artists to celebrate the natural beauty of Redland Bay and the Bay Islands.
Existing or new works can be entered in the ‘Girt By Sea’ Sculpture Exhibition.
The Exhibition is an acquisition program with four separate acquisitions of $8000 each and three of $14,000 each, held between March 11 to 19 March 2017.
The breakdown of the prizes are:
Painting Section. The following prizes are available to participating artists: a) Ten artists will be awarded a prize of $500; b) Five artists will be awarded a prize of $1000; c) Two artists will be awarded a prize of $2500; and d) One artist will be awarded a prize of $5000. A total of $20,000 in acquisition prizes and an additional $500 for people’s choice award.
Sculpture Section. a) Four artists will be awarded a prize of $8000; and b) Three artists will be awarded a prize of $14,000. A total of $74,000 in acquisition prizes and an additional $2500 in best exhibit and people's choice awards.
Closing date for the $74,000 acquisition section is 17th February 2017.
TED GOES ‘AU NATURALE’ WITH HIS SCULPTURE WORKS!
Well known island sculptor Ted Upton has taken a new artistic direction in his life.
Ted, known for his sometimes massive sculpture carvings from Australian hardwoods, has found a new way to go about it.
It is more about the environment and the appreciation of nature’s handiwork.
“I have finally realised that you can’t improve on nature,” he told us.
“It is also about getting back to nature and observing many of the shapes and directions that natural pieces provide,” he said.
Rejuvenated with some new bits and pieces in his knees that make it much easier for him to move around, Ted is on the hunt around our islands for interesting roots and timber pieces that lay on our foreshores or in our forests.
“I have been exploring and have made some sensational discoveries,” Ted added.
We caught him working at the recent Organic Festival on Macleay sanding a beautiful bloodwood tree root that could not be repeated in shape and design by human imagination.
“I can’t improve on this, so I have decided to go with it.”
Ted hopes to enter in the Girt by Sea event next year and is excited by the large amounts of money by way of incentive and prize money that is coming into the island arts community.
“It has always been my ambition to make our islands an artistic destination.
“The Girt by Sea event announced by Cr Mark Edwards will go a long way towards that eventuality,” Ted Upton said.
• Ted Upton
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