Richard Allen announced as 2024 Glover Prize Hanger's Choice Award

Allen earned the accolade - which is selected by the exhibition's hangers - for his minimalist depiction of the glacial Lake St. Clair and its famed, renovated 1930s pump house

Allen's Leeawulenna is one of 42 finalists in this year's $75,000 Glover Prize, Australia's most sought after landscape art honour, the winner of which is to be announced March 9.

The painting of the Western Tasmanian waterbody - the deepest freshwater lake in Australia - on a grey linen canvas renders Pumphouse Point and its water reflection in few and tempered white brushstrokes.

"Walking along the banks of Lake St Clair in central Tasmania, where the mist rolls over the glassy water and the land underfoot is strewn with the washed grey detritus of high waters passed, I was struck by the contrasts before me," Allen said of his winning work.

"The Pump House across the water appears as an exclamation mark, drawing the eye but at the same time providing perspective for the vastness and depth of the ranges behind.

'Leeawulenna, or sleeping water, is the lake's name, timeless, eternal in its slumber and the Pump House tells of man's passing folly and insignificance in this magical place."

As with each finalist piece, Leeawulenna was chosen as an exemplary representation of the Tasmanian landscape painted in the last 12 months - The Glover's sole entry criteria - and was handpicked from a record-breaking 740 artists from Australia and overseas.

"We knew exactly where it was when we took it out to hang it," said Genni Woof, one of the Glover's 2024 hangers.

"[Allen] has captured the sense of depth and stillness at Lake St. Clair with the most minimal of paint strokes. This is the work of a very, very skilled artist to be able to paint what he has and capture that."

Ms Woof said choosing the piece among herself and the 11 other hangers' was difficult this year because of the number of the formidable field of paintings on display but Allen's "spoke to us".

"There's a lot that this painting said; it's got layers itself that made it interesting," she said.

"While we were unpacking it from its bubble wrap, we were also unpacking it in terms of the story it was telling. That was special."

The Glover Prize exhibition, including Allen's work and the winning piece announced on March 8, will begin from Saturday, March 9, to Sunday, March 17, at the Falls Park Pavilion in Evandale.