THERE’s been a loud buzz of appreciation around Canberra art circles over the weekend with news that Braidwood artist Kate Stevens, a first class honours graduate of the ANU School of Art, has won the inaugural $50,000 Evelyn Chapman Art Award.

The scholarship, inspired by the first female artist who depicted the devastated battlefields, churches and towns of the Western Front after WWI, Evelyn Chapman, allows artists to do research at the Australian War Memorial and explore recent experiences of Australians at war and the history of war artists.

Chapman (1888 – 1961) was an Australian painter who, despite her success, was forced to give up her artistic career by her husband.

The announcement of the award at the SH Ervin gallery in Sydney on Thursday coincided with Chapman’s birthday, 130 years after her death, recognising her as a pioneer for women interested in the subject of war.

Stevens’ winning painting, simply titled “Gaza”, features the modern war-torn city of Gaza and is closely related to a series of work on show at Canberra Contemporary Art Space, “Drones over Aleppo”, exploring how we process images of war “from the domesticity of home”.

There is no shortage of arts organisations justifiably ready to share in Stevens’ glory, for she has been truly supported by the Canberra arts community.

This writer can recall a younger Stevens taking snapshots of cars on Barry Drive in the rain and turning them into painterly, dreamlike oils.

That was in 2002 and she’s since won a travelling scholarship to Japan from the Artists Society of Canberra.

But she has also won The Alliance Francaise De Canberra Exhibition Award, the EASS Canberra Museum and Gallery Award, people’s choice in the Canberra Art Prize and the Canberra Contemporary Art Space award.

Further afield, Stevens has won the Portia Geach Memorial Painting Prize in 2011, people’s choice in the Portia Geach Memorial Painting Prize, 2016 and the Veolia Creative Arts Scholarship, 2017

Kate Stevens is undoubtedly one of Canberra’s up-and-coming artists and the $50,000 will go a long way to words towards furthering her already brilliant career, although  rices for her works are expected to skyrocket with news of her win.

Kate Stevens’ “Drones Over Aleppo”, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Gorman Arts Centre until November 17. Stevens’ “Scenes from an Afternoon” are at the Nancy Sever Gallery, also in Gorman Arts Centre, until November 17. Aleppo’ Artworks from CCAS by Stevens CCAS are available for purchase at the Nancy Sever Gallery, corner of Currong and Batman Streets, Braddon.