Portia Geach Memorial Award 2004

2004 marked the 40th Anniversary for the Portia Geach Memorial Award. Wendy Sharpe, who won the Award in 1995 and again in 2003, officially opened the ceremony at the S H Ervin Gallery on Wednesday 6th October, 2004.

Trust congratulates the Portia Geach Memorial Award 2004 winner, NERISSA LEA for her work “The Sheik & Me, Self Portrait with Imagined Portrait of Chad Morgan after Frida Kahlo”.

Artistic Statement - Nerissa Lea

After seeing Chad Morgan perform in Tamworth I began thinking it would great to paint a portrait of him one day, after the famous Ingres portrait of Louis-Francois Bertin.

Mr Morgan mentioned to me that he had not been painted since 1962. I told him I would be back to paint him when I got the portrait thing right. So several efforts later I am getting closer. This painting is a portrait of me in my studio with an imagined portrait of Chad Morgan finished on my easel. The composition and the size of the painting was inspired by Frida Kahlo’s painting, Self Portrait with Portrait of Dr Farrill , 1951.

I have attempted in my work to tell stories about the strangeness of life familiar to us all.

Nerissa Lea completed a Bachelor of Fine art at the South Australian School of Art in 1982. Since then she has attempted in her work to tell stories about the strangeness of life familiar to us all.

Highly Commended - Catherine Fox for “Face 3: Self Portrait”.

Artistic Statement – Catherine Fox

Self-Portrait' presents a continuing investigation into the relationship between the physical and psychological aspects of self-portraiture.

This is the most personally confronting and probably the most autobiographical self-portrait I have thus far produced. The abruptness of the cropping, or fragmentation, of my face and the full-frontal vantage point seemed to me to run a neat parallel of my life at this time. I see this work in both a humourous, comical way as well as in a decisive and sobering light.

The combination of objectivity, realism, subjectivity and humour are implicit in my work wherein I attempt to draw and paint the subtlety expressive gestures of the full figure, plus body fragments such as breasts, bottoms, backs and hands within allusive interiors or environments.

Over the last few years I have been exploring the nude within self-portraiture drawing upon my interest in observation, contemporary realism and mass media, the traditional and current representation of the female nude as well as my fascination with artists of the Victorian era such as Degas, Courbet and that of the Impressionists.

The Judges for the 2004 Award were Terence Maloon (Curator, Art Gallery of New South Wales), Wendy Sharpe (Artist) and Jane Watters (Director, S H Ervin Gallery).

315 artists entered this year’s competition with 60 being selected for the exhibition.