The 2017 Mosman Art Prize presented 88 finalists from 850 entries across Australia. Judges Kirsten Paisley, Deputy Director, National Gallery of Australia, awarded the major acquisitive prize of $50,000 to Sydney artist, Jumaadi for his multi-panelled work, Some kind of record (2016). The $3,000 Allan Gamble Memorial Award (for Built Environment) was given to Glenn Locklee for Urban industrial fragments (2017), and the Fourth Village Providore Emerging Artist Award, won by Clara Adolphs for Sal (2017). And… the recently announced $1,000 Mosman Art Society Viewer’s Choice Award was awarded to Ashley Frost (NSW) for his work entitled, Tradies Sublime (2017), a richly layered and colourful painting that pays quiet homage to the humble worker whose early morning starts regularly witness perhaps the most visually beautiful time of the day – sunrise.
Congratulating Frost on his win, John Cheeseman, Director Mosman Art Gallery said, ‘Ashley’s urban morning landscape was the clear winner at this year’s Viewers’ Choice. With the Mosman Art Prize showcasing the best examples of contemporary painting in Australia, the exhibition continues to draw large attendances and significant public support. We’ve hosted almost 12,000 visitors this year and there is no thought of the Prize slowing down, especially as it celebrates its 70th year.’
Ashley Frost, Tradies Sublime, 2017, oil on board, 120 x 137cm – 2017 Mosman Art Prize, Viewers’ Choice. Sponsored by The Mosman Art Society
Frost’s recent urban and cityscape works, in both oil on board and mixed media on paper, evoke the diversity, colour and convergence of urban elements around some of our major cities; the curious and vibrant places, where the city’s periphery converges with the inner suburbs; at the anomalous moment where day ends and night begins. The series is developed from landscape studies centered on the cities of Sydney, New York, Beijing, Melbourne, Hong Kong and Brasilia where the artist has been conducting research and exhibiting his work.
Frost is often seen painting or drawing plein air on roadsides or atop of buildings, capturing the first or last of the day’s light. The artist discusses his winning work:
‘This is a painting of the early morning ‘sublime’ light from Bannerman Street Cremorne.
I regularly paint plein air from a number of locations around the harbour in Mosman, NSW.
I am currently working towards a show with Mosman Art Gallery that opens this December, ‘Bush to Bay: Hinton and the artist camps’, that looks at the early artist’s camps of Mosman Bay and the role artists such as Arthur Streeton and Tom Roberts played in developing a notion of the Australian Sublime.
It was on a visit to the artist camps earlier this year at around 6am I came across this stunning sunrise in Bannerman Street, Cremorne. I immediately stopped the car and took a photo, made a few quick sketches and colour notes. I then returned to my studio later that day and painted a smaller study and from this started work on the larger piece that you see in this year’s Mosman Art Prize.
The title refers to the sublime light that we witness at this time of day and how so often it is the tradesmen ‐ who are everywhere on the roads at this time of day rushing to get to their worksites by 7am ‐ who get to see these sublime sunrises. It’s also a play on the idea that the notion of the sublime can be a highly academic term in art theory and how it is in fact the humble ‘tradies’ who often get to see these fleetingly beautiful moments of the day.
I grew up in Mosman and Cremorne until I moved down the coast to Thirroul where I now live with my two children and wife, and paint from my studio in Bulli. I still love my visits to Mosman and think it’s my favourite place in Sydney.’
Ashley Frost is represented by Stella Downer Fine Art, Sydney and ZZHK Gallery, Hong Kong.
Mosman Art Gallery
Until 29 October, 2017
Sydney
