Glover Prize hanging volunteers Alice Bushby and Lee Harper level up Linda Keough's Introduced Species artwork. Picture: SCOTT GELSTON
IT'S the Glover volunteers' equivalent to Christmas - 43 tightly wrapped packages and the anticipation of what surprises each will reveal.
As the paper is ripped off and the bubble wrap carefully removed, each hanger is encouraged to consider which work they believe is the most likely to win the coveted $40,000 acquisitive Glover Prize for landscape. Yesterday a shortlist was named.
An atmospheric oil depicting Launceston's GPO and Cameron Street by last year's Hangers' Choice winner Leoni Duff made the list, as did a pencil on paper of Cataract Gorge by Julia Payne.
Previous People's Choice winner Stephanie Tabram was in the mix with The Long View - an acrylic on linen.
After much debate, it was the monochrome oil Introduced Species by Linda Keough that won the day.
``We see a lot of this speculative style in colour, but not so much in black and white,'' said chief hanger Alice Bushby.
``It's quite fantastic, and really full of detail.''
Once the decision was made it was back to the serious work of following curator Jane Deeth's running sheet to get all 43 works hung ready for the official judging tomorrow.comon Friday.
Judges are the deputy director at the National Gallery of Victoria Dr Frances Lindsay, Scottish-born Australian artist and coordinator of postgraduate programs at Melbourne's RMIT Dr Peter Hill, and independent curator Jasmin Stephens.
The Glover Prize exhibition opens to the public on Saturday. Other Glover events include a concert featuring the Australian National Academy of Music Wind Octet on Sunday at 6.30pm and talks by Terence Talbot about the colonial artist John Glover from Saturday to Tuesday.
FACT FILE
WHAT: Glover Prize 2013.
WHERE: Falls Park Pavilion, Evandale.
WHEN: Saturday, March 9, to Tuesday, March 12. Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, 10am to 4pm; Sunday 9am to 4pm.