On Saturday 29th March, 2003 I travelled to the little town of Castlemaine, in Victoria, Australia. A feature of the current art festival there is the Dominique Segan drawing prize, a prestigious award with an exhibition taken from over 300 entries. The exhibition covered a wide range of drawing styles and mediums, from finely detailed realism through to 'alternative' techniques. Among the realist pieces, favourites were 'Waiting for the Cooper' by Michael Tollis, which allowed a rich variety of mark-making to enhance a finely observed country scene. Linda Weil's unassuming 'Pinecone Study', one of the smaller pieces in the show, displayed fine observation and a delicate touch in rendering the variously crisp and flowing textures of cone and foliage. I also enjoyed the intensely contemporary 'Axis Mundi' by Nancye Canobie, utilising frotage on drafting film, suspended in a minimalist frame and lit from behind. Charcoal featured strongly, including 'The Train Station Platform: Eavesdropping' by Lucy Oates, which received a mention from the judges. The winning piece, 'Semazin' by Peter Daveringon was a deserving winner. I was immediately drawn to the piece when I arrived at the show, its energy and abstraction underpinned by solid technical ability, and a deep intellectual invlovement with the subject on the part of the artist.
I found, however one disquieting aspect of this competition, which was the varied standard. One of the judges, Godwin Bradbeer mentioned the reduced size of the exhibition, and I can't help wondering if the 'various reasons' which he diplomatically alluded to, looking somewhat discomfitted, included reduced quality. Among the many fine pieces are examples of poor drawing. A clumsily-drawn foot and awkward hands diminish one portrait; one pastel drawing is so poorly executed, with incorrect foreshortening and indifferent handling of the medium, that it should not have been hung at all; a one color pencil drawing, hovering somewhere between 'naive art' and ignorance, had sensitive mark-making destroyed by a disorganised composition, and the texture of the cold-pressed watercolor paper which the artist inexplicably selected.
Now, if you are one of the artists I have just criticised, please remember that there are many good things about your art. Please, don't take it too much to heart. Your creative vision is a personal, wonderful thing. What I take to task is the lack of training in the skills needed to express this vision. If this prestigious, lucrative drawing prize really represents the state of drawing in this country, why is the standard so poor? It seems to me that like some arcane craft, drawing is in danger of dying out.
(Please read the next page for further discussion of this issue.)
