INTRODUCING JUDGES
Gallery One Committee, on recommendation of Gallery One Smallacombe Portrait Prize Subcommittee appointed 5 judges to make Prize winning decisions on their behalf.
Prize judges have different background, education, artistic expression and they are all uniquely different artists on many levels.
However, first and foremost, all five judges are practicing artists. They live art and have deep and personal experience and understanding of the artistic struggle.
J A ARNOTT
DAVID BRAUN
PHILLIP DAVID
JESS MARA
ROBERT ZUNIC
J A ARNOTT
JA Arnott maintains her art practice in the verdant Adelaide Hills. Living with rolling vistas of Heysen landscapes and the changing of the colours of each season provides inspiration for her imaginative magical realities, both on the canvas and their companion stories.
With a background in graphic design specialising in illustration and typography, JA Arnott followed her own path to her current practice. Starting as tutor at Gallery One in decorative art, she went on to curate many exhibitions as its director, developing a robust art program, mentoring emerging artists all the while employing her graphic skills.
An interest in portraiture and the oil painting techniques of the “old masters” sparked the rekindling of her private art practice. Applying these techniques, an abundance of visual influences and her own imagination created a morphing into the realms of imaginative realism which are now part of her “Gallerie Amuse” collective.
JA Arnott teaches Foundational Drawing and Painting within her creative home at Gallery One. Her paintings are held in numerous private collections, as are portrait commissions throughout Australia.
This year she will once again curate and co-judge the Smallacombe Portrait Prize with pride.
JA Arnott has achieved many awards and has been a finalist in many Art Prizes including: Winner Mitcham Art Prize Peoples Choice Award; Winner Mitcham Art Prize Open Award; Winner Mitcham Art Prize Drawing Award; Finalist Emma Hack Art Prize; Finalist Portia Geach Prize
Images courtesy the artist
Sarah
Terence, knight errant
Teacup in a storm
Scherzo
DAVID BRAUN
David Braun is an Adelaide Artist and Educator. He studied art/graphic design at Columbia University and Pratt Institute where he completed his Masters Degree in Art History and Theory. For many years David was a Principal Lecturer in Graphic Design in the second largest Design Teaching facility in South Australia. David is active member and contributor of The Artist’s Voice and Royal South Australian Society of Arts. He was a member of many Art committees and panels and he also held several RSASA official positions. With fellow artists as well as solo, David exhibits extensively around Australia and the USA .
David is a Fellow of the Royal South Australian Society of Arts and has achieved many awards and has been a finalist in many Art Prizes including: Adelaide Park Lands Prize, Kennedy Prize, Adelaide Hills Landscape Arts Prize, Winner of Solar Art Prize and Adelaide Park Lands Prize and most recently he was a 2nd Overall Prize Winner in 2022 Solar Art Prize.
Imageshttps://www.art-almanac.com.au/88-david-braun-in contrast/;https://www.adelaidereview.com.au/arts/visual-arts/2019/06/07/caring-for-our-planet-through-art/;https://parklandsart.com/14-david-braun/ 31 May 2023
Top-Mount-Lofty-Ranges
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Storm-Approaching-Carriageway-Park Tuthangga
Road to Normanville
PHILLIP DAVID
As an artist for more than 50 years starting at the age of seven, I've been enthralled with the use of a pen and pencil in sketching and indeed the beauty of luscious paint. My love for oil painting expanded in the1980s and I found myself zoning towards mainly figurative painting, especially portraits. My belief is that a good portrait has to have soul and when the viewer looks at the work regardless of the date it was painted the subject should have an emanating soul and the luminosity of humanity.
Philip is a Fellow of the Royal South Australian Society of Arts and has achieved many awards and has been a finalist in many Art Prizes including:
Percival Portrait Prize 2016, 18 & 20; Black Swan Portrait Prize 2014;Gallipoli Art Prize 2010; Adelaide Perry Drawing Prize 2016; Hornsby Art Prize 2017; Pt Pirie Art Prize 2014, 16; Adelaide Hills Landscape Prize 2017;Who is Looking at Me 2017; Gallery M Contemporary Art Prize 2017;ANL Maritime Art Prize 2015, 16, 17 & 18;
Solar Art Prize 2015, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 & 21; Characters of the Fleurieu 2016, 18 & 20; Whyalla Art Prize 2015;Victor Zhang Portrait Prize 2015, Kennedy Portrait Prize 2017, 19 & 21;Semi-Finalist in Doug Moran Portrait Prize 2017 with 2 portraits & 2019.
Images: courtesy the artist and https://philipdavidart.com.au/ 31 May 2023
Melissa Ritchie
Bob Landt
Jasmine Crisp Dan Withey
JESS MARA
Jess Mara is an Adelaide based painter, sculptor and installation artist. After completing her Bachelor of Visual Art (Honours) in 2006 at Adelaide Central School of Art, Jess spent time in Europe developing her practice as the recipient of the Hill Smith Gallery/Malaysia Airlines Travel Award. In 2007 she was selected for the Hatched National Graduate Exhibition at the Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA).Jess has been actively exhibiting for over ten years. Her solo exhibitions include These Four Walls at Floating Goose Studios Inc, in 2018, and Some Place Near at Hill Smith Gallery in 2013. She has also been curated into numerous group exhibitions including Good Mother at Adelaide Central Gallery. Jess has been a finalist in the Royal South Australian Society of Arts -Portrait Prize, The Prospect Portrait Prize and The Shirley Hannan National Portrait Prize. In 2019 she was the People’s Choice Winner of The Kennedy Art Prize.
Jess lectures with us in both the Drawing and Painting Departments. She has recently presented portraiture workshops for VAESA (Visual Arts Educators of South Australia) and completed a residency at Wilderness School.
Jess is a member of Switchboard studios, Norwood.
From https://acsa.sa.edu.au/academic-staff/jess-mara/ 29 May 2023
Images:https://www.facebook.com/Adelaide.Central.School.Art/photos/a.244492088935170/4188812361169770/?paipv=0&eav=AfawtFwaEnrBpWVy4qH4Prz1J383G4Qucl3uhGKXt770n_DvgT_F5NDMZVZONXSpk7I&_rdr; http://www.jessmara.com/about.html; https://creativehealth.org.au/previous-exhibitions/bundled-together/ 31 May 2023
Embrace
(Self Portrait with Son)
Embrace
(Self Portrait with Daughter)
ROBERT ZUNIC
Being the third generation in a family of professional artists, Robert has been immersed in the art world for as long as he can remember. Art is his bread and butter, as well as his life passion. Robert is now an Adelaide based artist who exhibited on over 50 collective and 20 solo exhibitions in Europe, the USA, and Australia with his works housed in many private as well as some public collections.
Experienced and advanced skills Art educator on both secondary and tertiary levels, Robert is also writing and speaking about art, art theory as well as education. One of his major writings, created originally as a thesis for his Fine Arts Master’s Degree from International University for post-diploma studies in Dubrovnik, is a published biography on artist Vladimir Udatny. Visual Arts with Robert Zunic is a channel Robert hosts on educational video platform ClickView.
He is a member of Gallery One and Royal South Australian Society of Arts.
His interests extend further to music and composing. Les Gitans Blancs, a Gypsy Jazz group that Robert formed, performs in SA as well as interstate and internationally and has released two albums.
Robert believes that there is “a lot to learn and nothing to teach”, and yet, he is an art educator. Also, Robert doesn’t enter his art in art competitions and prizes, and yet, he has judged quite a few.
Ah, the paradoxes of life and paradoxes of an artist….
But, as Kierkegaard would say: “Take away paradox from the thinker and you have a professor.”
Image: courtesy the artist
The Princess and the Pea
Nonna
Jessica
True Colours
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