Congratulations to Luke Sciberras, whose work ‘Autumn light, Lake George/Werriwa’ has been selected as a finalist in this year’s Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of NSW.
‘For thirty years, I’ve been hugely intrigued by the mystery of Werriwa/Lake George,’ explains Luke Sciberras. ‘It is a vast flat area ringed by lovely low hills that catch the light beautifully. As it fills and recedes it transforms in a mercurial way from a series of ordinary looking sheep paddocks to a shimmering wetland teeming with birdlife.’ The lake is close to Kamberri/Canberra, with its north-western edge meeting the Federal Highway en route to Goulburn and Sydney. Sciberras remembers it as always being on his radar. On each approach, he would wonder how the perpetually changing lake might appear.
A five-time Wynne Prize finalist, Sciberras recalls catching the train from Campbelltown to the city as a teenager to view the Wynne, which he regarded as ‘the most painterly inspiration I could find’.
Image: Luke Sciberras, Autumn light, Lake George/Werriwa, oil on board, 160 x 244.5 cm
