I am very pleased to announce that my painting Home of the Brave has been selected as a finalist in the $25,000 Whyalla Art Prize. It will be on display at the Middleback Arts Centre from September 26 to 14 November, along side works from such clever souls as ‪#‎datsuntran‬ and ‪#‎tseringhannaford‬

Although now its freezing out, this picture will always be associated in my mind with last January's blistering heatwave, when I spent many days sweltering in the studio trying to capture the nature of oxidised bronze.

Here's a little bit about the painting: The ebb and flow of Imperial fortunes can be traced by the monuments they leave. Bronze affirmations mythologise successes (and failures) until, in time, these myths come to define the events themselves.

Defence of these myths reach absurd levels in New York, with the apartments now occupying Wall Street’s former financial bastions protected by barriers and armed guards, because the symbolism of the name is more potent than the mundane reality.

Here, the statues advertising the capitalist mantra are barricaded from their disciples; victims of a congregation so enraptured they have long since lost perspective of their original beliefs.
©Matthew Quick 2015