Pemberton Art Group’s 20th Annual Spring Exhibition opened on Friday

Pemberton Art Group’s 20th Annual Spring Exhibition opened on Friday night, with 42 artists from the South West and surrounding regions, including Denmark, Busselton, Bunbury, Perth and Manjimup, showing their interpretations of the theme ‘Time’. The artworks were judged by Indra Geidans, who determined the award winners on the opening night, with prizes being sponsored by local businesses including LJ Hooker Pemberton, Ampersand Wines, Pemberton Hotel, Beedelup House Cottages and Southern Forests Chocolate Factory. Anna Czerkasow’s painting Cascade Walk won the Shire of Manjimup Acquisitive Award, which came with a $2000 cash prize, with the judges’ commenting that her work had a “genuine understanding of the natural environment” and was “exquisitely completed”. Dylan Nietrzeba won both the $150 Treasures in the Forest Voucher Award and the $500 Quantum Pacific Holdings prize for his work A Life’s Journey, with the judge noting his work to have “beautiful control of the medium with exquisite attention to detail while broaching a difficult topic”, while Lesley Barrett also took two awards home - the $250 Beedelup House Cottages Prize and the $300 LJ Hooker Pemberton Manjimup Award, for her work Mustard Hot Lips, which was noted for being “visually appealing” and “unusual form and markings creating a strong presence in space”. Other winners included Barbara Maumill’s Hampton Street, praised as a tightly and beautifully rendered landscape, capturing the light of an urban environment, Jan Hart’s Nights Imaginings, with the artist commended for having “excellent skill in capturing that difficult time between night and day”, and Debra Bettoni’s Time to Decay, which was praised for her “excellent rendering skills with great control of the medium”. Award winners $2000 Shire Acquisitive Award: Cascades Walk by Anna Czerkasow $1000 Rygold Nominees Prize: Time to Decay by Debra Bettoni $1000 Mona and Torsten Ketelsen Award: Nights Imaginings by Jan Hart $500 Quantum Pacific Holdings: A Life’s Journey by Dylan Nietrzeba $500 Ampersand Estates Prize: Sunrise at Cathedral Beach by Jo Hanna $500 Phil & Wendy French Prize: Enough by Vikki Cook $300 LJ Hooker Pemberton Manjimup Award: Mustard Hot Lips by Lesley Barrett $250 Southern Forests Chocolate Factory Prize: Next High Tide by Holly Lamey $250 Pemberton General Store Prize: Patiently Aging by Elke Paull-Keller $250 Millhouse Collective and Grumpy’s Prize: Hampton Street by Barbara Maumill $250 Faye’s Prize: Kawauso – Japanese River Otter by Yuko Takahashi $250 Beedelup House Cottages Prize: Mustard Hot Lips by Lesley Barrett $200 Pemberton Hotel Prize: Eternal Nemophilist by Tracey Jarick $150 Voucher Treasures in the Forest Award: A Life’s Journey by Dylan Nietrzeba Jacksons Encouragement Award Gift Pack: Clarity by Sean Tysoe