THE votes are in and the counting has been done in this year’s Coffs Coast Art Prize 2020 People’s Choice Award competition.

The winner of the $750 art prize was Sarah Fletcher of Glen Innes for her artwork ‘Lillie’, a drawing commissioned by a Coffs Harbour family in memory of their much loved golden retriever.

The brief for Sarah for this commissioned work was to ‘capture her spirit’.

“Given the comments from audiences at the Coffs Coast Art Prize, Sarah has certainly done that,” Coffs Harbour Arts Council president Ann Leonard said.

Sarah decided to enter the art competition after her sister read about it in News Of The Area and sent her details about it.

Sarah specialises in portraits of animals, and her artwork is in high demand.

Her portrait of Lillie captured 7.5 percent of the votes cast, which was twice as many as the second most popular artwork.

“The talent and diversity of the artworks was echoed by most works receiving a share of the vote,” Ann said.

There was a tie for second place between Leesa White’s ‘Praying for Peace’ and Carly Supple’s ‘Behind the Shadow’, a portrait of Australian actress Jolene Anderson.

Ann said visitors to the 2020 Coffs Coast Art Prize were impressed and appreciative of the depth of talent and diversity of the works exhibited.

“We were truly uplifted by the joy found amongst their work by the viewing public,” Ann said.

Coffs Harbour Arts Council thanks all major sponsors for their support of the Coffs Coast Art Prize 2020 including Coffs Cardiology, The Book Warehouse, The Art Factory, Mills-Thom Mechanical Repairs, Coffs Central, and Coffs Coast News Of The Area.

“We are particularly grateful to Coffs Central for making this wonderful exhibition space available to support art and culture on the Coffs Coast,” Ann said.

“We would also like to thank the artists for their enthusiasm; we were totally overwhelmed by the response from this very active community.”

 

By Emma DARBIN