THE Artists Society of Canberra’s 2018 Spring Exhibition ran over the weekend at the Fitters Workshop in Kingston and was “a great success” according to the society’s enthusiastic new president, Vickie Hingston-Jones. 

Three hundred works by ASOC members were on show and all are for sale until Sunday (November 25).

New features this year were the $1000 prize Capital Chemist sculpture competition, which went to Peggy Spratt for “Tenderness”; and an exhibition of works by young artists from four schools for students with special needs: Black Mountain, Cranleigh, Malkara and Woden.

In her welcoming speech, Hingston-Jones linked the inspired founders of ASOC with its contemporary luminaries, before introducing the guest speaker, historian David Headon, who placed ASOC in the context of its founding in 1927.

Headon stressed the importance of “Canberra history on the ground” rather than the “blathering” he had observed from public figures during World War I commemorations – there was a hearty round of applause for that.  

Chief judge Deborah Hart, who is the senior curator of Australian painting and sculpture at the National Gallery of Australia, was on hand to discuss the way she and her colleagues had gone about judging the works.

ASOC Spring Art Exhibition winners:

Acrylics

First: Vickie Hingston-Jones for “Bees in the Wild Garden”

Second: Steve Tomlin for “Take me on a Fairground Ride”

Third: Louise Spencer for “Dark Horizon”

Drawing

First: Tim Hardy for “Old Willow”

Second: Bill Chaffey for “Books for Winter”

Third: Sukhvinder Saggu for “Portrait Sketch with Turban”

Miniatures

First:  Sandra House for “Holt Scene”

Second: Eva Henry for “Fern Pool WA”

Third: Isla Patterson for “Mt Franklin”

Mixed Medium

First: Sallie Saunders for “Alice Likes Rabbits”

Second: Michaela Laurie for “We Came Upon a Faraway Tree”

Third:  Brigitte Causbrook for “Tree”

Oils

First: Alan Jones for “Inside/Outside”

Second: Lucky Hua for “Big Wheel”

Third: Susan Rabbidge for “Carillion”

Pastels

First: Steve Tomlin Brighton for “Boogie Woogie”

Second: Vickie Hingston-Jones for “Duncombe Bay, Norfolk Island”

Third:  Cherilyn Burns Southland for “New Zealand”

Print Making

First: Hilary Warren for “Hoi An House”.

Second: Angharad Dean for “Ghost Gums”

Third:  Matthew James for “Canyon Star Trails”

Watercolour

First: Oliver Cheng for “Walking Together”

Second: Vivien Pinder for “Gang Gang Cockatoos”

Third: Irena Varebski for “Waiting for tomorrow”

Best Abstract

Steve Tomlin for “On Location, Hastings”

Best Still Life

Stanley Jones for “Just a Vase of Flowers”

Best Portrait or Figure

Stephen Clively for “The Patterned Life – Woman on Black”

Best Flora or Fauna

Carla Begbie for “Superb Fairy Wren”

Peg Minty Prize for Landscape

Alan Jones for “Ibis Nesting”

Best In Show

Lucky Hua for “Blue Mountains Sunrise”

Capital Chemist Inaugural $1000 Sculpture Prize

Peggy Spratt for “Tenderness”