The Armadale Society of Artists held its annual art awards night on Friday, November 4, displaying artwork from more than 150 members in what Mayor Ruth Butterfield said was the exhibition’s best year to date.
“It was actually the 35th annual awards exhibition we’ve had,” president Mary Jarrett said.
“We had 250 people come for opening night and about 500 people throughout the weekend.
“All together we had 13 awards, from best oil, best pastel, best mixed media – over a lot of different mediums.
“The winner of the best overall award was Dave Archer with his sculpture – it was huge, amazing, more than six feet high.”
Entitled “Amazing Africa”, the winning sculpture – a mechanised, wood-carved carousel – is the result of five years of work by Mr Archer, who moved to Canning Vale from South Africa 20 years ago.
“I was inspired by the busker organs in Paris, and I thought of the concept of a merry-go-round,” he said.
“I am an engineer so the electronics was part of my job. The artwork itself was fun, I wanted to have animals and I thought, why not African animals.
“I carved the animals and painted them up, then we built the carousel around them, then the mechanical parts that articulate the animals to give it some movement.”
Ms Butterfield presented the awards and said it was an opportunity for the society to showcase the diversity of artwork in the community.
“It’s wonderful for so many talented artists to have the chance to exhibit their work in the heart of Armadale, which is becoming renowned for its creative and supportive arts community,” the mayor said.
With an ever-growing membership, Ms Jarrett said anyone is welcome to join in an learn from the arts collective.
“At the moment we have about 187 artists in the society, all at different levels, some are just beginning and some are multi-award winners,” she said.
“One of the big things we’re celebrated this year is we have been allocated the Armadale Arena.
“It’s been two years we have been without a homebase, so now we have our own space we can run all of our classes, workshops and meetings.
“We hope to make it somewhere the whole community can come and enjoy.”
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