The popular Camden art prize is back in harness after taking a break during the pandemic years.
Winners for the 45th annual competition were announced on Friday night in the Camden civic centre, which is the venue for the exhibition.
Brett Atkins, the art director of the committee, announced that the major winner in 2023 was a local artist, Deborah Heeley.
Ms Heeley, who hails from the Wollondilly area, won with a portrait of jockey Hugh Bowman, entitled Intrepid Challenger.
As is the usual practice, the painting, which was priced at $5,000, will be acquired by Camden Council.
The winning artist was presented with her prize by Mr Atkins and Camden Mayor Ashleigh Cagney, who did the honours for all of the category winners.
This year’s judges were Amanda McLean and Hamish Ta-me, who were unable to attend the presentation.
Before the presentations, in front of a sizeable gathering, guest speaker Heather Mitchell was introduced.
Ms Mitchell, an actress who has just released her autobiography, grew up in Camden.
Among the guests were two local MPs, Nathan Hagarty from Leppington and Judy Hannan from Wollondilly.
The exhibition at the Camden Civic Centre, which finishes at 4pm this Friday, includes the works from all of the finalists in the various categories.
But it also includes 20 acquired works that won the overall prize, from 2000 to 2019.
The first ever Camden Art prize was held in 1975 and the inaugural committee included such well known Camden names as Bruce Cunngingham, Liz Kernohan and Nancy Freestone, among others.
