Sarah Waghorn: 2020 Calleen Art Award FINALIST

The prestigious Calleen Art Award is an annual art prize encouraging originality and artistic merit. It is with excitement that we share news of a 2020 finalist from our own stable, Sarah Waghorn for her artwork titled “Covid Kitchen”.

The Calleen Art Award was established in 1977 by Mrs Patricia Fagan OAM. The winner of the Calleen Art Award receives $20,000 in prize money made possible by the generosity of the Calleen Trust. A painting is selected as a finalist by a selection panel of art professionals, with the winning painting becoming part of the Calleen Collection at the Cowra Regional Art Gallery. We wish Sarah Waghorn the best of luck as a finalist for judging. 

Sarah’s painting is an oil on panel sized 60x45cm and features her own kitchen flooded with gorgeous illuminating sunlight. Titled “Covid Kitchen”, it was created earlier in 2020 during Australia’s compulsory isolation period aimed to soften the spread of coronavirus.   

‘During the lockdown at the start of the Covid-19 breakout, my family bunkered down, all of us here at this table sharing our private anxiety over mealtimes and then processing the greater stress and horrors unfolding on the daily news. Each member would disappear to their respective rooms to self-school or work remotely and I was left to keep the wheels of family life oiled. I cooked and fed endlessly (my tall family are big eaters) and this kitchen scene represents the quiet space between the coming together at mealtimes. I wanted to distill these tranquil moments between each tornado by representing the beautiful sunlight flooding across the floor. Outside the birds continued to twitter, the cows mooed and the nature of the landscape beyond the windows gave me hope, especially after the drama of the drought and the bushfire-ravaged summer.’  Sarah Waghorn

 

Previous winners of the Calleen Art Award and therefore represented in the Calleen Collection include Mandy Martin, Greg Daly, Claire Martin, Rowen Matthews, Meg Buchanan, David Fairbairn, Yvonne Boag, Peter Gardiner, Wendy Sharpe, Naomi White, G. W. Bot, Gladdy Kemarre and Zai Kuang.

Sarah Waghorn’s fantastic talent has been recognised over the years in various prizes, the most recent of which was as a Finalist in the 2020 Waverley Art Prize Finalist and and Finalist in the Hawkesbury Art Prize late last year. The KAB Gallery team are extremely proud and are looking forward to the winning announcement. 

About the author

Kerry-Anne Blanket

Director & Curator - KAB Gallery

KAB Gallery’s Kerry-Anne Blanket holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts and two Masters degrees (Hons) from the University of Sydney. With an extensive career in art education along with the management of museums and investment art galleries, Kerry-Anne can offer premier art consulting to her clients and source specially requested works. 

She has a keen eye for detail, comprehensive art market knowledge and a love of all things beautiful. Kerry-Anne works directly with artists and collectors alike to curate interesting and eclectic exhibitions.