PANEL OF JUDGES

Art Unlimited judges are: Western Plains Cultural Centre Assistant Curator, Kent Buchannon, artist Tim Winters, photographers Peter Scott, Steve Garland and Natalie Ghiggioli, Cudgegong Gallery Director, Lyn Cole, and ceramicist Kaye Rice.

TIM WINTERS

Recent winner of the Country Energy Art Prize for Landscape Painting, Director of the Ironbarks Printmaking Summer School, 'International Visiting Artist' at Peacock Visual Arts, Aberdeen, Scotland (June, July 2008).

From the time Tim arrived in Australia as a sixteen year old boy, he has been struck by its landscape. "How many times can you fall in love? The diamond light, the red earth, the ethereal and ephemeral history and mystery of the ancient land…"

Tim's work encompasses drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture.
He is represented in the permanent collections of Artbank, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Print Council of Australia, Regional Galleries, as well as corporate collections, such as Standard & Poors, Resmed and Masuya.

KENT BUCHANNON

Kent Buchannon is Assistant Curator of the Western Plains Cultural Centre. He has vast experience in the arts, having worked in the Arts industry for the past 9 years. He holds a Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts) from the College of Fine Arts, UNSW and a postgraduate diploma in Education from CSU.

PETER SCOTT

Peter Scott's career in photography was set off with a bang by an unlikely coincidence. On establishing a professional photography studio in Artarmon on Sydney's lower North Shore, he made the fortunate discovery that Max Dupain and his assistants Jill White and Eric Sierns were working in the studio adjacent to him.

Since then Peter has gone on to work for numerous clients and had his work featured in publications including Australian Country Style, Better Homes & Garden and Interiors Magazine. He has also worked for advertising agencies, shooting everything from Venetian blinds to cargo ships, and travelled to nearly every state and territory in Australia on assignment.

Now living in Mudgee, Peter still works for some of the local wineries as well as with local community organisation, The Australian Rural Education Centre. He has also been instrumental in establishing the Mudgee International Short Film Festival, Mudfest, held every year in March.

STEVE GARLAND

Growing up in Sydney's southern suburbs, it was a fascination with all things mechanical, and the technical side of cameras and photography that first interested Steve - mostly pulling them to bits to look inside. It wasn't until his early twenties and a short stint running a community television station in Thredbo that Steve realised there was a career in photography to be pursued.

Four years of an associate diploma course in photography at Ultimo TAFE and a longer stint in an advertising studio in Surry Hills quickly sharpened Steve's skills, with the reality of the pressure of professional photography and the challenges it brings.

A move to far western NSW near Broken Hill opened a new series of subjects and environments to explore with a camera, resulting in some of Steve's most enjoyable work experiences. Successive jobs in the tourism industry have filled much of Steve's professional life to the present.

Steve is keenly interested in messing about with pinhole cameras in the immediate future. Fewer parts to put back together, he says.

NATALIE GHIGGIOLI

After studying commercial photography in the mid 1980s, Natalie Ghiggioli was employed by Van Elson Photographics in Adelaide where she shot advertising material. She also photographed fashion models for Don Mellor in Adelaide.

She moved to Sydney and worked in advertising for Federal Publishing, photographing properties, businesses and horses. As official photographer for the National Arabian Championships, her work encompassed a range of horse related publications including The Australian Horse Newspaper and Horse and Hound in England.

Today Natalie specializes in child portraiture and co-ordinates the Coolah District Diary. She supplies various local media outlets with regular photography work and has, over the last fifteen years, judged a range of regional photography shows.

LYN COLE

Lyn is Director of Cudgegong Gallery, a dynamic arts facility located in Gulgong specialising in contemporary ceramics. Prior to establishing this facility in 2004 Lyn operated in Senior Management roles in Sydney, with a focus on media research.

Lyn has over 30 years experience in media working in a variety of advertising agencies, magazines, radio and television. Her management, curatorial and marketing skills have contributed to Cudgegong Gallery's success, being one of the few private-sector regional galleries in NSW. She oversees the gallery, café, office space, artist in residence program, public programs and a host of related marketing services.

Lyn has secured qualifications in information technology and hospitality, and is currently completing a Bachelor of Art History at University. She is a member of several Mid-Western Regional Council committees including Cultural Development and Red Hill Environmental Education Centre. Previously Lyn held an executive position on the Chamber of Commerce and in the development of the Henry Lawson Centre in Gulgong.

Lyn has a strong desire to showcase the incredible wealth and diversity of artists in the Gulgong-Mudgee-Rylstone region and is a strong advocate for the development of the arts in this area. Lyn was elected to the Arts OutWest board in 2007.

KAYE RICE

Kaye has been a potter for three decades, during which time she has followed a circuitous path through a Certificate arts course, teaching, training as an assistant at Wyaldra Creek Pottery, Ceramics Diploma and back teaching again.

The ancient art of coiling large pots and the oriental Raku philosophy originally drew Kaye into the world of clay.

Over time it was the materials themselves - the clay and rock minerals - and the environment that formed them over millennia that captured Kaye's attention. The opportunity to observe closely the McMeekin Sung collection, pots made from the materials at hand at the time, almost a century ago in China, left a life-long impression.

Kaye now works with the raw clays in her vicinity, incorporating many of the local minerals available commercially, hoping to capture some of the essence of her environment and the beauty of the materials as seen at a microscopic level.