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Jason Roberts takes line honours in Inglis Equine Art Prize

14th Aug 2013

Jason Roberts takes line honours in Inglis Equine Art Prize

For the second year a Victorian water colour artist has taken line honours at the Inglis Equine Art Prize (IEAP). Jason Roberts won the 2013 title for his work “Valyra Passes Beauty Parlour at Chantilly” in the face of stiff competition from well over 100 entries.

The winners were announced at a gala function held on Tuesday night in the old stables at Inglis’ Sydney headquarters in Randwick.

Roberts’ winner’s purse is $15,000. Runner up Tony Pridham, who was also runner up last year, received prizes of Antler luggage and Yalumba wine to the value of $2,500 for his work ‘Jockey up’.

The theme for this year’s awards was ‘All Things Thoroughbred’. It was judged by Arthur Inglis, Alister Simpson, and Archibald Prize winner, Frank Giacco.

Said Mr Giacco: “It sounds clichéd but I’ve judged a number of art competitions and none were quite as closely run as this. I managed to get it down to five and then we compared notes to unanimously end up with our final two. My compliments go to the winner and runner up for two remarkable works.

Equine artist Alister Simpson added: “Jason’s work depicts the beautiful architectural lines of the Great Stables at Chantilly, France, which are cleverly contrasted with the two horses in the foreground in different strides of their gallop. In so doing he has beautifully balanced the subjects with neither overpowering the other.”

Said Inglis deputy chairman Arthur Inglis: “The judges repeatedly remarked on the high standard of the 30 finalists. While a closely run thing, we were unanimous in selecting Jason’s remarkable piece.”

The winner was chosen from 110 entries from around the world which was reduced to 30 finalist works of art representing 29 artists.

The prize is in its third year. It was established by Arthur Inglis and Mike Coward of Australian Art Sales, as a way of promoting and protecting classic thoroughbred and equine art in Australia and internationally.

The whole collection will be showcased in Victoria from 15-16 August at the Melbourne Inglis Oaklands complex sale, 285 Oaklands Road, Oaklands Junction, as well as Melbourne Racing Club Winners Circle Room at Caulfield on 17 August.

The works will also be shown in Dubbo at the Sainsbury Automotive's Honda showroom from 11-18 September and there will be further exhibitions in other locations to be announced through to June 2014. All finalists’ works can be viewed online at Australian Art Sales

The public will be able to view and purchase the 30 works on display.

Photo: Jason Roberts with his winning artwork "Valyra Passes Beauty Parlour at Chantilly"