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Sonja Bowden wins People’s Choice Award in the 2013 Inglis Equine Art Prize

15th Oct 2013

New South Wales artist Sonja Bowden has been crowned the 2013 Inglis Equine Art Prize People’s Choice winner for her colour pencil artwork ‘Grand Sire’.

The award was based on the number of public votes the 30 finalists received during a series of public viewings.

Ms Bowden, who is from Bundanoon, won a studio crank easel from Mont Marte International. The People’s Choice runner up was Barry McCann's for his artwork, 'Al Maher'.

Said Mike Coward of Australian Art Sales: “This is the third year running that a drawing has taken line honours in the People’s Choice award. From the comments I received I believe people appreciated the superb technique in Sonja's drawing, its historical significance and its modern feel.”

“It is an honour to win this very special award as there were another 29 works of art of a very high standard,” said Ms Bowden, who has a background working with horses.

“I worked extremely hard on this piece, researching each horse, paying particular attention to colour, size and individual characteristics with special attention to scale, conformation and anatomy. Drawing and designing the eventual layout also took considerable time, moving sketched images to create a balanced compilation.

“I chose this technique, a contemporary and modern approach, to create something very different of crisp lines, solid, high density colour and with no background interference to detract from the purity of the Thoroughbred and then brushed every hair into place with the finest detail.”

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. The global art prize, now is in its third year, will change to a biannual event with the next event set for 2015.

Said co creator of the competition, Arthur Inglis: “Over the last three years we have seen this prize attract a high quality of equine art locally and internationally. After discussions with the artists, we have switched to a biannual format to give entrants more time to prepare and enter their works.”

Overall winner was Victorian watercolour artist Jason Roberts for his piece ‘Valyra Passes Beauty Parlour at Chantilly’. Roberts was awarded $15,000 prize money, with second-time runner-up Tony Pridham, also from Victoria, receiving prizes of Antler luggage and Yalumba wine to the value of $2,500 for his work ‘Jockey Up’.

Inglis would like to thank their sponsors and everyone who attended for making the 2013 Inglis Equine Art Prize a success, including Yalumba Wines, Crown Lager, Topcat Catering, Antler luggage, Mont Marte, and Style My Wedding.

The 30 works are open to the public for purchasing. They can be viewed at Australian Art Sales