Awards appreciate artistic achievement

Artists, sponsors, and special guests travelled to the historical town of Cossack for the opening night of the Cossack Art Awards on Saturday.

Close to 300 artworks by local and national artists adorned the stone walls of the old Bond Store and Post and Telegraph Building.

Lesley Munro won the best overall artwork category with her painting titled The Way Back. Munro, who has been an artist for 40 years, said the award came at a great time for her.

“I suppose it caught me in a moment of some doubt, and it’s fantastic to have the reinforcement that an award like this gives one,” she said.

Last year’s best overall artwork winner Caspar Fairhall won the 2013 invited artists category.

Fairhall lives in Perth but has spent the last month as an artist in residence in Cossack.

“I love it, it’s another world,” he said.

“Australia is amazing because we have so many different environments, but the Pilbara is particularly special.

“What grabs me the most is the geology of the place, and the sense of time that you find in geology, there is a sense of the sublime to be found there.”

Local indigenous artists Aileen Sandy, Loreen Samson and Celia Sandy won the top prizes in their categories.

Nic Kot from Archipelago Arts helped organise the event in partnership with the Shire of Roebourne, Rio Tinto and Artsource, and said while the event was on a national level, it had a strong Pilbara influence.

“Out of the 293 works, 180 of them are from local artists,” she said.

“The public programs that we’ve run, all the places have filled up really quickly, so it just goes to show there’s a massive interest out there.”