Talking With Painters

Australia's most famous art prize was awarded yesterday at the Art Gallery of NSW together with the Wynne and Sulman prizes. The $100,000 prize went to a shocked but happy 29 year old Julia Gutman for her fabulous portrait of singer/songwriter Montaigne. It’s titled ‘Head in the sky feet on the ground’, a beautiful mixed media work consisting of oils, found textiles and embroidery. I had a chance to talk with her shortly after the announcement and I’m bringing you today that conversation together with her acceptance speech. The Wynne prize for landscape painting or figure sculpture went to Zaachariaha Fielding for his painting 'Inma’. Zaachariaha is primarily a singer, the lead vocalist of the band Electric Fields, and he sings in Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara and English. Together with producer Michael Ross he has received 22 awards over the past 6 years for his music. In his winning work he’s aiming to visually depict sound, specifically the sounds of Mimili, a small community in the eastern part of the A