To address what I felt was a gender imbalance in my Monumental Nobodies series where I (unconsciously) favoured male statues, the last 14 paintings featured female subjects. As the original subjects are classical statues, many of them are actually naked. Maybe this is sexism. Maybe sensuality. But conceptually, I certainly was not being gratuitous. All the nudes that appear in this series have been chosen to make specific points.

Conveniently, this also mean I had a picture suitable to enter this prize, the theme of which was The Naked & Nude.

Very happy to have been selected as a finalist with my picture Behind The Curtain.

And Im in with some spectacular company; Peter Churcher, Dagmar Cyrulla, Prudence Flint, James Guppy, Stewart MacFarlane, Nick Mourtzakis, Sally Ryan, Michael Simms and fellow Nanda Hobbs stablemate, Gria Shead.

Sydney Morning Herald Art Critic John McDonald, is judging this prestigious prize, and it will be on show at the Manning Regional Gallery, Taree, NSW from September 2, 2017