A BACHELOR of Visual Arts honours student majoring in painting has been announced as winner of the 2021 Drawing Prize from a field of 29 finalists at the ANU School of Art & Design. 

Lucy Chetcuti won the $1,000 prize for her untitled work, executed in oil and mixed media on polycotton.

“I’m very honoured, and I certainly wasn’t expecting to win,” she said.

The work, which is approximately 1m tall, was described by Chetcuti as “an intuitive drawing… a little bit like an automatic drawing, but I do have a vague direction in mind.”

She said she had been working with compositions that showed the sensation of passing through shrubbery and branches.

“It’s a gestural drawing that suggests liminal space, passing from one place to the next, with everything floating organically but strangely and without any weight.”

The entries were judged by a panel of school academics and guest judge Stephen Payne, artistic director and CEO at Megalo Print Studio.

“With almost every workshop in the School of Art & Design represented, the finalists demonstrated a truly impressive range of techniques, themes and indeed interpretations of the very concept of ‘drawing’,” Payne said.

“I found myself coming back to Lucy Chetcuti’s work for its subtle combination of playful and thoughtful elements, both considered and aleatory.

“I felt that Lucy showed in her piece a deep understanding of composition and texture – and also presented a beautiful evocation of the asàrotos òikos, the ‘unswept floor’ of Greek and Roman mosaics.”

All the finalists’ works are on display in the ANU School of Art & Design Gallery and can also be viewed online. Voting for the Drawing Prize People’s Choice Award closes on August 26 here.

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