Following up my post on Stephanie Lewis’ winning entry in the Tuggerah Lakes Art Society’s ‘Fabulous Fakes’ competition, I feel the urge to write something about art competitions, judging and entering them.

Have you ever noticed that in art competitions, the people’s choice rarely ever coincides with the judges.  In fact if you are anything like me you may often stand in front of the winning entry in a competition, scratching your head and wondering why that was the winner. Sometimes it is a complete mystery to me as to what criteria has been used to judge these works.  Which leads me to a choice of different conclusions none of which are very satisfactory.  These are: either the public doesn’t have a clue; the work might be technically perfect but the judges are looking for something else; the artist needs to resonate with the judges genre or ultimately it comes down to personal taste.  For example if you have entered a traditional still life in an open competition and two out of three judges prefer contemporary abstract works, I’d say you have Buckley’s chance of getting any kind of a prize for your efforts.  Therefore in entering art competitions, I wonder if it might be a good idea to check out the judges own personal style of work first to see if you are in with more than a wing and a prayer.

The video below tells the story of the painting chosen for the People’s Choice Award in the Archibald Prize at the NSW Art Gallery Sydney, in 2009.

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