Prudence Flint wins 2016 Len Fox Painting Prize

Image: Prudence Flint, Wash 2015, oil on linen. Reproduced courtesy of the artist and Australian Galleries.

Prudence Flint, Lecturer in Painting and Drawing, Bachelor of Visual Arts and Design degree at the St Patrick's Campus, has won the 2016 Len Fox Painting Award for her work Wash (2015).

This is one of the most prestigious painting prizes in Australia and is funded by Len Fox (1905-2004) to commemorate the life and work of his uncle, the influential Australian painter Emanuel Phillips Fox (1865-1915).

43 contemporary artists were shortlisted from 170 for the $50,000 acquisitive award for a painting in sympathy with the work of Emanuel Phillips Fox. Fox is known for his plein air, impressionist style in which he depicted vibrantly coloured landscapes and scenes of everyday life. The award is an exciting opportunity for artists to interpret these qualities in a contemporary context. The prize was judged by Dr Rex Butler (art historian, writer and Professor, Art History & Theory, at Monash University).

Prue's work Wash depicts a woman washing her face in a basin and is from an ongoing series of paintings of women in bathrooms. “I am interested in the tradition of depicting an intimate private space where the body interacts with its own animal care and solitude. I wanted a pared back aesthetic and the curved downward pose with the movement of the water creating a kind of voice”.

Prue has won both the $100,000 Doug Moran National Portrait Prize (2004) and the $30,000 Portia Geach Memorial Award (2010) and has been a finalist in many prizes including the Archibald Portrait Prize, Paul Guest Prize, National Works on Paper and Rick Amor Drawing Prize. She has held solo exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra and Hobart and is represented by Australian Galleries in Melbourne and Sydney and Bett Gallery in Hobart.

The exhibition is hosted by the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum and will be on display from 8 October to 31 December.