The Percivals 2024

Percival Portrait Painting Prize (Major Acquisitive Prize) – $40,000

Winner: Seabastion Toast How the Light Gets In 2023

_{Image: Seabastion Toast, How the Light Gets In 2023, Portrait of Karlee Rawkins, Oil on canvas, 181 x 121 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.}

About the Artwork

Over two decades ago, Karlee Rawkins and I embarked on our undergraduate journey together. While life led us down different roads, fate has brought us back to the same community once more. In creating this portrait, I sought to capture the essence of Karlee’s world – a world illuminated by the winter light streaming through the windows of her home. This play of light and nature serves as a symbolic representation of her work, which delves into the profound connections between wildlife, nature, and the human psyche. Amid the chaos of family life, she radiates a meditative serenity, an unwavering devotion to her craft always at the forefront of her mind. Her life and art are inseparable, a testament to her enduring commitment. In the distant doorway, you’ll find her son’s silhouette, a powerful symbol of her transformation from a solitary studio artist to a loving mother, disability-rights advocate and artist.

– Seabastion Toast

About the Artist

Seabastion Toast lives and works on the mid-North Coast of NSW. Among her achievements, she recently won the $10,000 Darcy Doyle Landscape Award for the second time. In 2023, she won the People’s Choice Award at both the Portia Geach and the Sunshine Coast Art Prizes. She was recently in the top eight finalists in the Evelyn Chapman Award, won two awards at the 2019 Glover Prize, and is regularly a finalist in many prominent art prizes nationwide, including the National Still Life Award, Doug Moran and Mosman Awards. Seabastion holds a Bachelor of Fine Art from Southern Cross University, which included a very influential exchange to the Pratt Institute in New York. She is represented by Anthea Polson Art Gallery on the Gold Coast. Other than painting, she also loves running up mountains, surfing, her husband, and dog Audrey.

Percival Portrait Painting Prize (Highly Commended)

Winner: Mark Dober Self portrait 2024

_{Image: Mark Dober, Self portrait 2024, Portrait of Mark Dober, Oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.}

About the Artwork

This work was made in the studio while looking in the mirror. My painting, whether landscape or portraiture, is grounded in observation. I paint with directness and immediacy. I seek to express a sense of myself in interaction with the subject: the work is as much about the experience of seeing as it is of what is seen. A sense of the experiential and the lived moment features in all of my work.

Mostly, my portraiture is of myself – as I am available. I also paint my wife with our cat.

– Mark Dober

About the Artist

Mark Dober is an established artist, who holds a PhD in Painting from Monash University. The focus of his art practice lies in making paintings and drawings on site in the landscape, both locally (central Victoria) and at residencies. He regularly holds solo exhibitions of landscape painting at regional galleries: in recent years, these have been at Geelong, Mildura, Wagga Wagga, Windsor (Sydney), Castlemaine, Warwick, Bathurst, Swan Hill, Tuggeranong, Wodonga and Benalla. Mark’s portrait painting is made directly from the subject. The work is made to be shown in contemporary art prizes (most recently in the Salon des Refusés in Sydney and the Rick Amor Self Portrait Prize in Melbourne).

Percival Portrait Painting Prize (People's Choice)

Winner: Claire B. Cusack Matthew 2024

_{Image: Claire B. Cusack, Matthew 2024, portrait of Matthew Wimhurst, Alice Cusack, Victoria Cusack, oil on canvas, 76 x 61 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.}

About the Artwork

This is a portrait of love, but also of sorrow and pain. It is a tribute to my brother Matthew, who has faced many challenges, from a learning disability to Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, from a heart attack to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Now in palliative care, he relies on a machine to breathe. He is a fighter, a survivor, a hero.

My daughters Alice and Victoria adore their uncle and share a special bond. They have seen him struggle and suffer, but also smile and laugh. They have learned the value of life and the power of love. They are his angels, his joy, his hope.

This is a portrait of us, a family that has been through so much, but still stands together. We have cried many tears for Matthew, but we also celebrate his life and spirit. We are inspired by his strength and resilience. We are grateful for his love.

Matthew passed away on Sunday, 7 April 2024 – I am honoured to have had Matthew as my big brother.

– Claire B. Cusack

About the Artist

Claire Cusack loves to capture her surroundings and paint contemporary portraits of people and places in her life. Faces fascinate her; different expressions, the way eyes capture certain emotions or just the slight tilt of a head can say so much. Claire won first place in Silver is Gold COTA ACT Art competition in 2021 and 2022, and has been a finalist in a number of art competitions, including the Gallipoli Art Prize (2023) and The Percivals (2022). Through her art, Claire seeks to capture the beauty and complexity of the world around us. Claire believes that art has the power to inspire, uplift, and connect people. Claire’s work seeks to be testament to the power of creativity and the human spirit.

Percival Photographic Portrait Prize (Major Acquisitive Prize) – $10,000

Winner: Danish Quapoor screening test 2024,

_{Image: Danish Quapoor, screening test 2024, Portrait of Noah Guthrie, Archival digital photographic pigment print on Hahnemühle photo rag, 56 x 80 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.}

About the Artwork

This work captures a moment of intuitive inspiration, extending an ongoing series of photographs of the artist’s partner and muse. It furtively examines concepts of otherness, co-habitation and the body in relation to liminal space. The shirtless subject waits patiently, and perhaps ominously, amidst tropical vegetation at the back entrance to a suburban home. Will he be allowed inside before the afternoon light fades?

About the Artist

Danish Quapoor is a multidisciplinary artist and curator based in Gurambilbarra/Townsville, Queensland. His practice typically centres on ceramics, illustrative painting and textiles; however, photography is also of recurring interest. The artist favours sparse compositions and subdued colour palettes, which unify his ostensibly diverse oeuvre. Danish has led significant art projects in Queensland and Victoria, including solo, group and collaborative exhibitions, commissions, studio residencies, workshops and murals. His most significant solo exhibition to date, good grief, was held at Pinnacles Gallery, Townsville City Galleries in 2024. Danish holds a Master of Arts and Cultural Management (University of Melbourne), along with a Bachelor of Visual Arts and a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Creative Arts), Honours (University of Southern Queensland, [UniSQ]). Danish was also the inaugural 2023 UniSQ School of Creative Arts Alumni Fellow. He has works held in the Toowoomba Regional Art Gallery, Toowoomba City Collection, and private collections internationally.

Percival Photographic Portrait Prize (Highly Commended)

Winner: Cassandra McMahon Tools of the Trade 1 2023

_{Image: Cassandra McMahon, Tools of the Trade 1 2023, Portrait of Dr Rebecca Williams and Portrait of Hayley Moore, Digital photographic print on rag paper, 85 x 115 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.}

About the Artwork

At the Townsville Mortuary, Forensic Pathologist Dr Rebecca Williams and assistant Hayley Moore go about their daily ritual with mortality. Each tool they hold, wielded with clinical precision, offers a glimpse into the intricate process of unravelling the mysteries surrounding a person’s final moments. In this visual narrative, the synergy of intellect and fortitude unfolds as they navigate the delicate realm of post-mortem examinations in North Queensland.

These women, possessing minds as resilient as their craft demands, play pivotal roles in the intersection of grief-stricken families and the justice system. Beyond being a scientific pursuit, their labour becomes a profound service, offering solace to family and contributing to the pursuit of truth in the face of loss. In this exploration, I aim to illuminate not just the tools of their trade but the interplay of intellect, empathy, and resilience that defines their indispensable roles in the storytelling of the departed.

About the Artist

Cassandra McMahon is an early career artist based in Gurambilbarra/Townsville. Through photography, Cassandra seeks to create compelling visual narratives that celebrate the intersection of femininity, intellect, and cultural diversity. Cassandra’s work is informed by her own experience of growing up in Northern Queensland and she brings to her art a unique insight into the lives of the people she documents.

She is already a much-awarded and exhibited photographer: in 2023, she won and placed third in categories at the Townsville Show Photography Competition, received a Highly Commended in Travel, Photographer of the Year, and a Highly Commended in Portrait, Australasia’s Top Emerging Photographers. In 2022, she was a finalist in the Percival Photographic Portrait Prize and a finalist at the Hinchinbrook Arts Awards at the TYTO Regional Gallery. In 2021, she won in the category of Animal, Focus Photography Exhibition & Awards at the Mission Beach Gallery

Percival Photographic Portrait Prize (People's Choice)

Winner: Amanda Neilson Me Time 2023

_{Image: Amanda Neilson, Me Time 2023, Portrait of Jemima, digital photographic print, 30 x 50 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.}

About the Artwork

The concept for this image was to show the sitter at peace in her alone time. Jemima is a two–time cancer survivor as well living with an intellectual disability and anxiety disorder that can make life pretty challenging. I wanted to show her, in the comfort she finds alone on the beach, the tranquillity of being away from her world of hospitals, therapies and schedules and the chaos those things bring. I have used a long exposure to calm the waves and captured her standing still, or maybe still standing after all she has survived, despite the sands of her life that seem to constantly shift beneath her feet. The image is my attempt at conveying her happy place, of light and warmth, space to breathe, and where she doesn’t have any concern for who might be coming or what they may want from her. Her red dress is the perfect anchor in the image, giving an outward visual strength that represents her inner strength or character as well as making her easy to spot for her carers who are always keeping watch.

About the Artist

Amanda Neilson is a portrait photographer living and working in rural North Queensland where she runs her business around the needs of her family. She has a passion for capturing people in their natural spaces to tell the story of who they really are. She is well known for her creative concepts and attention to detail, always willing to go to extra lengths to capture unique and tailor made image memories for her clients. Most close to her heart is the work she does for the more vulnerable members of our society, where her motto is “beautiful people, in a beautiful light”.

Percival Animal Portrait Prize – $1,000

Winner: Elissa Sampson Doug 2022

_{Image: Elissa Sampson, Doug 2022, Portrait of Doug, Graphite on Fabriano Artistico HP, 30 x 22 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.}

Percival Animal Portrait Judge's Award – $400

Winner: Geordie Williamson Daphne 2023

_{Image: Geordie Williamson, Daphne 2023, Portrait of Daphne, Coloured pencil on watercolour paper, 42 x 29.7 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.}

Percival Animal Portrait Judge's Award (Highly Commended)

Winner: Annabel Armstrong Barn Owl 2023

_{Image: Annabel Armstrong, Barn Owl 2023, Portrait of Barn Owl, Mixed media on wood, 42 x 29.7 cm. Image courtesy of the artist.}

Percival Portrait Painting Prize

• Barbara Cheshire The Man Under the Hat 2024
• Christine Baker Rise 2023
• Christine Wrest-Smith Self Portrait with Purple Glove 2023
• Claire Cusack Matthew 2024
• Cutler Footway My Self at Seventeen, with Lily, Coral, Shells and Heart 2023
• Elizabeth Barden All That Glitters 2022
• Erin Stonestreet Hannah Waiting 2024
• Geordie Williamson A Sticky Situation 2023
• Irene Rae Sandi Hook - Her creative space 2022
• Jack Rodgers Self Portrait 2023
• Jamie Cole Because I'm Me (Does that make me crazy) 2024
• Jan Hynes Vince: North Queensland legend 2023
• Julie Vernon Barb 2024
• Karlalise Horstmans In-between Jobs 2024
• Kellie Leczinksa Cato AM and the Sphinx 2023
• Kevin Mayo Angela in her studio (Telekinesis for beginners) 2024
• Laurel Foenander Give Peace a Chance - Wolfie 2022
• Lili Montefiore Cuppa and Catch Up with Arthur 2024
• Lisa Ashcroft Bereavement (Dad's death mask on his death bed) 2023
• Marco Pennacchia Reverie 2024
• Maria de Los Angeles Pena Carmen in Boots 2024
• Mark Dober Self Portrait 2024
• Melanie Caple Cash, Love and Onyx 2023
• Naomi Matthews Fatigued 2024
• Nazila Jahangir Immigration- Annunciation 2023
• Neil McIrvine Self Portrait 2024
• Nick Offer Self Portrait (Hawaiian Shirt) 2024
• Peter Wegner James - Tasmania 2023
• Roland Nancarrow Double Bounce, portrait of Min Xu 2024
• Samantha Groenstyn Editor (Darby Jones) 2024
• Sarah Hickey Selves 2023
• Seabastion Toast How the Light Gets In 2023
• Simon Brown Jamie 2022
• Stephen Hawkins The Watercolourist - Mr. Maidens 2024
• Sylvia Ditchburn Ditchy 2023
• Thom Crowhurst Stand Easy (self portrait) 2024

Percival Photographic Portrait Prize

• Alexandra Baxter Harry is a name with the son behind it 2023
• Ali Choudry Richard - #1 2023
• Amanda Neilson Me Time 2023
• Andrew Rovenko The Party 2022
• Brian Cassey George at the Bus Stop - George Skeene OAM 2023
• Brian Cassey 100 Years & 3 Weeks - Alf Neal OAM 2022
• Brian Cassey Last of the Trochus Divers - Albert 'Boyo' Ware 2023
• Cassandra McMahon Tools of the Trade 1 2023
• Catherine Black Holly 2023
• Christine Hall A Portrait Within Art 2023
• Christine Hall In Her Space 2023
• Christopher Allery My Mother, Her Middle Name Is ‘Joy' 2023
• Dane Beesley Umbrella Man 2024
• Daniella Cortis Alex 2023
• Danish Quapoor screening test 2024
• Emily Portman Self Soother, Action Two 2023
• Eva Collins Proxy Tears 2023
• Garrie Maguire 20230514-1709 (from the male//chair project) 2023
• Jacinta Tomyn Particles, Self-Portrait 2023
• Katie Stewart Mum and Dad 2023
• Kellie Leczinksa The Multifaceted Sue Cato AM (backdrop by Marty Baptist) 2023
• Kerrie Di Cataldo Twin Peaks 2023
• Kerry Inkster I see and sing my own eyes inspir'd- Limited Edition Print 2022
• Mark Forbes Aimee 2023
• Mark Misic Banksia_Jeanette Misic 2024
• Michael Christofas Portrait of Voula 2022
• Minami Ivory Battlefield 2023
• MJ Bentley Portraits of Angus Cameron 2023
• Nicholas Giolia Egyptian Grammar 2023
• Richard Nolan-Neylan Jody Graham 2024
• Robyn Macrae Un dia de enero 2024
• Rosana Kersh Tougher Than The Rest 2023
• Sam Scoufos Self-Portrait in Water 2024
• Sandra Minchin I thought this was going to be my very last breath. 2022
• Sofie Dieu Born In Swamps II 2024
• Steve Womersley Warwick Capper 2024
• Virginia Szaraz Valentines 2023
• Wren Moore The Be-Wild-ered Wayfarer 2024

Percival Animal Portrait Prize

• Anna Jogefalt Racz Tony 2022
• Annabel Armstrong Barn Owl 2023
• El Mace Carlos 2023
• Elissa Sampson Doug 2022
• Geordie Williamson Daphne 2023
• Ignacia Ugarte Stay dreaming 2022
• Julia May Café Shiba 2023
• Pauline Dewar Humphrey Sleeping 2023
• Raina Falloon Atlas 2023

Selection Panel Members

Painting Prize Panel

Donna Foley

Dr Donna Foley, an arts educator for more than two decades, studied painting, printmaking and drawing at undergraduate level, and at various times throughout her career has produced portraits in each of those artforms. Two such portraits are in the City of Townsville Art Collection.

Alison Kubler

Alison Kubler has a double major in Art History from the University of Queensland, Australia, and a Master's in Post-War and Contemporary Art History from Manchester University, England. She has over 25 years' experience as a curator in museums and galleries in Australia, and on major public art commissions.

Alison worked as Arts Adviser to the Federal Minister for the Arts and Sport, held full-time curatorial positions at QUT Art Museum and Gold Coast City Art Gallery, and worked as Associate Curator, at the University of Queensland Art Museum. She is a standing member of the Second Chance Programme, a volunteer-run charitable organisation that was founded in 2001 to support homeless and at-risk women and children in crisis care by offering long-term accommodation and domestic violence shelters all over Queensland.

Alison is Editor in Chief of VAULT, a journal of art and culture, and a regular contributor to art magazines and journals. She is a Member of the Council of the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), Chair of the Collections Committee of the NGA, Committee Member of Know My Name, and is a Principal of Renshaw & Kubler Art Consultants. Alison is also co-author of Art and Fashion in the Twentieth Century, published by Thames and Hudson UK (2013), which was subsequently translated into German and Japanese.

Teho Ropeyarn

Teho Ropeyarn is a Cairns-based printmaker, curator and mentor from Injinoo, Cape York Peninsula. Teho graduated from College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, in 2009, with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting and drawing. He previously held the position of gallery curator at UMI Arts and Cairns Art Gallery. Selected exhibitions as curator include North by East West: Re-igniting a Cultural Connection Through Pearl Shell (2018) at Cairns Art Gallery, co-curated with CIAF's Artistic Director Janina Harding; and Goobalathaldin Dick Roughsey: Stories of this Land (2019) at Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA), co-curated with QAGOMA Curator of Indigenous Australian Art, Bruce Johnson McLean. Teho' work has appeared in exhibitions across Australia and abroad, such as The National 4: Australian Art Now, Carriageworks, Sydney (2023); rīvus: 23^rd Biennale of Sydney (2022); Queen Sonja Print Award, Norway (2022); Nuit Blanche, Toronto (2022); Tarnanthi 2021, Art Gallery of South Australia (2021); GOMA-Q, QAGOMA (2015); Primavera, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia (2012); and the 11^th Nationwide Academies of Fine Arts Printmaking Biennial, Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, China (2012).

Photographic Prize Panel

Glen O'Malley

Glen O'Malley is Queensland's longest exhibiting photographer, with his first exhibition at Ray Hughes Gallery, Brisbane, in 1975. He has had over 40 national and international solo exhibitions, and has shown in over 200 group exhibitions. In 2019/20, Perc Tucker Gallery showed a retrospective exhibition of his career, What Is A Dream? Glen has lived in North Queensland for 35 years, with continuing connections to the area all his life. He was one of nine artists in the 1981 inaugural exhibition at Perc Tucker Gallery. He describes his current work as "surreal documentary".

Anouska Phizacklea

Anouska Phizacklea (BA Hons, MA, MCom, CPA, GAICD) is currently Director of the Museum of Australian Photography (MAPh). Anouska has expertise across the visual, decorative, literary and performing arts as well as finance and organisational development. In 2023 she joined the board of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival (Treasurer). She has held senior management positions at leading Victorian public institutions, including Heide Museum of Modern Art and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), and worked for many years in art research and valuations in galleries and auction houses in Melbourne and London. Since her appointment at MAPh, Anouska has curated group and single artist exhibitions with leading Australian practitioners, such as Tamara Dean's Leave Only Footprints (2022); The Tucker Portraits (2020); Allusion & Illusion: The Fantastical World of Valerie Sparks (2018); and Robyn Stacey: As Still As Life (2018). She has also commissioned exhibitions such as STAGES: Photography through the Pandemic (2021); Portrait of Monash: The Ties That Bind (2020); and the major survey exhibition and publication of Anne Zahalka, ZAHALKAWORLD – An Artist's Archive (2023).

Hamish Sawyer

Hamish Sawyer is a curator, writer and currently the Artistic Director of NorthSite Contemporary Arts in Gimuy/Cairns. His practice is informed by close collaboration with artists. Recent curatorial projects include Compositional Utterances, The Old Court House, Cairns (2024) and Sam Cranstoun: You Are Neither Here Nor There, University of Sunshine Coast (2023). Hamish was previously the interim Director of Outer Space, a not-for-profit contemporary arts organisation based in Meanjin/Brisbane. From 2016 to 2019, Hamish was Curator at the Caloundra Regional Gallery on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, where he organised exhibitions by artists including Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan, Elizabeth Willing, and Laith McGregor. Hamish also worked at the QAGOMA, serving as a co-curator for the 8^th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT8) in 2015.

Percival Prize Judges

Painting Prize Judge

Bradley Vincent

Bradley Vincent is an independent curator and writer based on Queensland's Gold Coast. Most recently he served as the Head of Curatorial and Programs at HOTA Gallery, working on the preparations, opening and initial three years of exhibitions for the new gallery.

His projects at HOTA included the opening exhibition Solid Gold: Artists from paradise and debut international exhibition Pop Masters: Art from the Mugrabi Collection, New York. He commissioned projects with leading local and national artists and oversaw the development and delivery of Education and Public Programming across the gallery.

Prior to this he was co-director at Sydney's influential, independent art space ALASKA Projects.

Photographic Prize Judge

Tony Albert

Tony Albert is one of Australia's foremost contemporary artists with a longstanding interest in the cultural misrepresentation of Aboriginal people. Drawing on both personal and collective histories, his multidisciplinary practice considers the ways in which optimism might be utilised to overcome adversity. His work poses crucial questions such as how do we remember, give justice to, and rewrite complex and traumatic histories?

Tony is acknowledged industry wide as a valued ambassador for Indigenous community and culture. He was recently announced as the inaugural Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain First Nations Curatorial Fellow. He is the first Indigenous Trustee for the Art Gallery of New South Wales, a member of the Art Gallery of New South Wales Indigenous advisory, a board member for the City of Sydney's Public Art Panel and member of the Art & Place Board at the Queensland Children's Hospital and in January 2023 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Griffith University for his significant contribution to the arts.

Animal Prize Judge

Dr Chris Pretorius

Veterinarian at Kings Road Vet Surgery

Dr Chris grew up on a working farm in rural South Africa, he studied Veterinary Science and qualified in 1989 from the University of Pretoria. He worked for the Department of Agriculture for 4 years before opening his own clinic, and later a second clinic, treating all creatures great and small. He moved over to Australia in 2005 with his wife and three children. First living and working in Ballarat, Victoria, before moving to Townsville in 2006. Initially he worked at Kelso Veterinary clinic, then bought a share in another Vet Clinic in Townsville where he was a partner and part owner for 9 years. Then 10 years passed and in February 2016, Chris opened his own clinic Kings Road Vet Surgery. Chris has an interest in all procedures but has a real passion for all orthopaedic surgeries, especially cruciate and hip surgeries. He is a very down-to-earth, practical vet who truly cares about his patients and their family. Chris has 1 dog; Bobbie the Pomeranian and 2 horses; Power and Milo. When Chris isn't at work, he is usually spending his free time camping with his family or riding his horses.