Last year Lesley took out home the $5,000 Major Acquisitive Award for the QPRC and Bendigo Bank 2023 Art Awards, with her work Bush Track – Bottom Pond. The judges described Lesley’s work as ‘A beautifully textured piece that captures the vitality and nuance of the natural environment. The sgraffito technique artfully renders a complex scene gracefully. The technique offers layered complexity and a transient shimmering quality of light, bright and filtered moving across and through this rich vibrant scene. The translucent leaves in the foreground invite close interpretation, leading the viewer to search the bushland floor. How delightful to discover a dragonfly seemingly at home there hidden in the scene.

The 2024 QPRC and Bendigo Bank Art Awards are happening again this year with a total of $17,500 in Prizes! The Art Awards started in 2008 following a partnership with the Queanbeyan Art Society dating back to 1975. Council sponsored a major acquisitive prize at the society’s annual exhibition and the prize-winning artworks form the bulk of council’s art collection. The collection also contains additional works acquired at these exhibitions and others that have been gifted, and totals approximately 130 works. Since 2008 the Art Awards have been both a non-acquisitive and acquisitive exhibition sponsored and managed by QPRC and held in The Q-Exhibition Space, in Queanbeyan. The 2024 winners will be announced at the art Awards opening night on Thursday 23 May and the works will be on exhibition until June 15. FIND OUT MORE