As long as people are looking at art and making art, the 'landscape' genre will always have a place – from the calligraphic brushwork of the idyllic nature scenes in Ancient Chinese art movements, to the traditions of European pastoral scenes that influenced the earliest painting trends in post-colonial Australia, to breathtaking panoramas captured by drone cameras today. So, what do we value in landscape art today? Well, the Hadley’s Art Prize is a good place to start looking for an answer.
Established by the grand Hadley’s Orient Hotel in Hobart and worth a cool $100,000, the annual acquisitive art prize is one of Australia’s most lucrative art awards, awarded to the most outstanding portrayal of the Australian landscape. This year, Tasmanian-based artist Zoe Grey (@zoe__makes) has taken out the 2024 Hadley’s Art Prize for her painting ‘The Shape of Rock’.
Grey’s practice explores notions of home, connection to place and the experience of landscape. Taking cues from abstract expressionism, her winning artwork simultaneously conveys a sense of rebellion and a sense of calm. Laying your eyes on ‘The Shape of Rock’ feels sort of like walking up to a turbulent ocean on a windy day – there’s something innately calming about being in its unruly presence.
Grey's painting depicts the rugged landscape of Marrawah, a remote coastal community on the northwest edge of Tasmania where she grew up. A second-time finalist, the 28-year-old’s work was not only selected as the overall winner out of 35 finalists by the expert judging panel – but Grey was also chosen as this year’s $1,000 Packing Room Prize Winner, selected by the team of volunteers who assist with unpacking the artwork.
Speaking about the painting, Dr Neil Haddon from the judging panel says: “The style is a familiar one, I don't think it's necessarily groundbreaking… It's expertly done, don't get me wrong. But the thing that convinced us as judges was the story behind it, which is the deep and profound connection that Zoe has to place, and how that gets transcribed or moved into the paint. And you do get a feel for that once you know the story, you can see that happening in the gestures and the marks.”
While the landscape genre traditionally has a fixed point of view, Grey is more interested in exploring the feeling of a place and how we experience the environment. Her main muse is the rugged landscape of Marrawah, a remote coastal community on the northwest edge of Tasmania where she grew up.
“This particular painting is about the coastal environment of my home, the rocks that I learned to walk over and the mountain at the end of the bay, the abalone shells and the presence of the ocean… making the painting was a way to reconnect with that place,” Grey told Time Out. “All I can do with my work is try to stay honest to what I'm drawn to. For me, that's exploring notions of home, and of engaging with the landscape and the environment. And it would be lovely if when people can view the work, they can maybe reflect on their own relationships to place.”
Zoe currently works alongside a handful of other finalists at Good Grief Studios, which is just a short walk from Hadley's. While there is a warm and supportive artist community in Hobart, she is excited that the prize money will help to fund her relocation back to the lands she grew up on, where she is currently building a studio. Zoe also plans to pay-it-forward by sharing some of the prize money with local organisations, and also adds that the prize will also allow her to "buy paint and really nice materials for the next show".
From hyper-realistic paintings (that on first glance, you could be fooled into thinking are photographs) to abstract interpretations and actual photographs, the Hadley’s Art Prize showcases a diverse and invigorating sample of the possibilities for landscape art – similar to what the National Photography Prize accomplishes, which is hosted annually by MAMA Albury, or the ever-popular Archibald Prize for portraiture from the Art Gallery of NSW.
The true beauty of a good painting is always, of course, best seen in-person. There are subtle qualities that just don't show up in a digital reproduction on a screen. So, if you’ve been looking for an excuse to pop down to Tasmania, let the Hadley’s Art Prize be the star of your art-and-culture-packed escape in Hobart. Meanwhile, get a sneak peek with our top picks of the finalists, below.
Highlights from the Hadley's Art Prize for landscape art, 2024
Rosie Hastie - 'Scotts Peak'
Working alongside Zoe Grey at Good Grief Studios, Rosie Hastie (@rosiehastie_art) is an artist who specialises in creating and photographing elaborate "landscape dioramas". She received an Honourable Mention from the judges for her finalist artwork, which is a stunning depiction of Scott's Peak, a prominent mountain in South West Tasmania. You wouldn't know by just looking at it, but Hastie's image isn't just a straight up snap of the location – it's actually a diorama that has been carefully constructed from paper, with a carefully timed waft of of vape "smoke" lingering under studio lighting. Seriously, it's pretty mind-blowing stuff.
Laura Patterson - 'Original Shadows, Kooparoona Niara (Mountains of the Spirits) / Mole Creek Tasmania'
Brisbane-based painter and architect Laura Patterson (@laurapatterson__) is the winner of the 2024 Residency Prize, and this will be an exciting opportunity for her to continue to develop her evocative style amongst Tasmania's ancient national parks. The judges described her finalist artwork as "a beautiful painting which feels both familiar and haunting. With evocative filtered light, there is a sense of moisture and dampness that make you really feel like you’re in the place."
Meg Walch: 'The Shape of Space: Crab Burrow Morphology'
In the same vein of Rosie Hastie's deceptive photography, Meg Walch's (@meganwalch) painting is not what it appears. From a distance you might think to yourself "oh cool, mushrooms!" But come closer, and you'll discover that these organic forms are not fungi – Walch has painted them directly from plaster moulds of abandoned crab burrows in the salt marshes of Tasmania. (And yes, she did learn how to identify which burrows had been abandoned.) These eccentric shapes from below ground raise questions about what qualifies as "landscape art" and also stimulate learning about the secret "subterranean calligraphy" of a unique marine environment, and we reckon that's pretty cool.
Zaachariaha Fielding: 'Inma'
When Zaachariaha Fielding (@zaachariahafielding.art) isn't keeping busy as the vocalist of the spirited electronic duo Electric Fields (who just earlier this year represented Australia at Eurovision) he is also a Wynne-Award-winning painter, just casually – and the judges gave an Honourable Mention to his work, 'Inma'. Fielding comes from a long legacy of multi-disciplinary Aboriginal artists, and his finalist painting presents the place he grew up – Mimili, a community on the APY Lands in far north South Australia – through a childhood lens, recalling observations of inma (song and dance) and movement. The colours of this work, especially the deep purples and electrifying reds, summon an electrifying charge. (Fun fact: Zaachariaha's father, Robert Fielding, is also a finalist in the Hadley's Art Prize.)
Harrison Bowe - 'By Water Over Time'
Emerging artist Harrison Bowe's (@harrybowepotter) practice is a tribute to the reverent beauty of the Tasmanian landscape. Typical tropical beaches don't inspire him to pick up a paintbrush, but show him an ancient gnarled rockface that's a week-long hike from civilisation, and he'll be compelled to channel its beauty via oils. His finalist artwork depicts the First Split on the Gordon River, as the day’s first rays of light spear through a fluvial quartzite cathedral onto the tannin-soaked waters below. Before landscape art became his main thing, Bowe was focussed on performative works ("jumping around, throwing paint" kind of stuff) and that highly physical and tactile approach is also evident in his paintings, which thrum with life.
David Keeling: 'Future proofing-memory bank'
David Keeling's (represented by @bettgallery) unusual piece is one of the more divisive paintings displayed in the Hadley's Art Prize this year, but we are firmly into it. In his painting, three intricately-detailed landscape views of Freycinet National Park (located 125 kilometres northeast of Hobart) are positioned in "bubbles" (the artist would call them "jewels") atop museum-like sculptural forms. Keeling began presenting landscape in this way from the late ‘90s as a way of highlighting the precious, fragile natural environment, under threat from development and the effects of climate change. The unconventional style provokes curiosity, prompting you to look a little closer.
See other finalists and find out more about Hadley's Art Prize over here.
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