New South Wales (Sydney) Art Gallery... Archibald Exhibition

I spent a fabulous day at the NSW Art Gallery.
It's a beautiful building...

Old history on the outside...

With old style galleries and exhibitions...

 
And modern galleries with all sorts of interesting exhibitions.

I particularly went to see the Archibald Exhibition
which is Australia's favourite art award...
Awarded for the best portrait painting and is the...
'Who's who' of Australian culture.
Below is the 2013 winning painting...

 




In an adjoining gallery was the Wynne Exhibition...
The prize is for the best landscape painting of Australian
scenery in oils or water colours or the best example of figure sculpture
by Australian artists.
The winning painting below...

 

And the Sulman exhibition...
For the best subject painting, genre painting
or mural project... By an Australian artist.
The winning painting  below...

 

 There was also a 'Packing Room' prize...
This painting was chosen by the people
who unpacked all the entries and hung them.

And 'The Peoples Choice' prize...
When you visited the exhibition you could vote online
at the gallery, for your favourite portrait....
The award was announced on 16th May.

This painting was not the one I voted for...
But it was a very hard choice.
Each painting had hung beside it
the artist's thoughts around who and why they had chosen to paint
and what they wanted their painting to represent.
I found this extremely helpful, as I am not always good
at interpreting an artists work.








I thoroughly enjoyed spending the day browsing in the
gallery, looking at all the exhibitions
and drinking coffee in the excellent cafe.
Another day to be remembered in my Sydney visit.