Hobart-based artist Nicholas Blowers won with his artwork Savage Entropy, an oil on canvas work based on Savage River in the state’s North-West.

“I have an ongoing engagement with certain places and Savage River is one of them,” Blowers said.

“It is a way of forming a physical connection with a subject over time in an attempt to express what might be universally understood through the locale. 

“In its most simple terms, Savage Entropy is based on observation, scrutiny and feeling.

“There is a degree of disorder and chaos within this landscape, which is a gift for a painter.

“Each thing – branch, twig, clod of mud – has its own presence and is distinct.”

It was the second time in three years that Blowers won People’s Choice.

Exhibition curator Megan Dick said Blowers was “a very accomplished artist.”

“Nicholas focussed very closely on the landscapes that he paints, and at the moment he is focussing on the area around Savage River,” Ms Dick said.

“I think this is quite an engaging landscape from looking at it, and even though it is about the landscape at the end of its life and there are often parts of the landscape that are damaged in his work, there is an underlying beauty about his painting.

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“Also, it’s just very well painted.”

Ms Dick said she told Blowers that he had won.

“I first told him that he had won the People’s Choice award, and he said, ‘oh, I didn’t think the people liked me’.

“I said, ‘Nicholas, the people love you.’

“And it turns out, the children love him too.

“I was quite surprised that the children and the adults basically voted for the same prize.

“Clearly, the children are far more sophisticated than we give them credit for.”

Media director Mark Wells said about 10,000 people visited the exhibition, and about 75 per cent of attendees for this year’s exhibition voted in the People’s Choice award.

About 23 per cent of the votes went to Blowers’ artwork.

Mr Wells said the exhibition had drawn more students than last year, with about 1300 coming through the Falls Park Pavillion.