Ben Quilty
Awarded Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship 2002

Friday 20 September 2002

It was announced at the Brett Whiteley Studio in Sydney�s Surry Hills on Friday 20 September that Melbourne based, Sydney artist Ben Quilty has been awarded the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship for 2002. His winning work entitled Elwood Park, is an oil on canvas painting measuring 30 x 44cm.

Twenty-nine year old Ben Quilty completed a Bachelor of Painting/Visual Arts at the Sydney College of the Arts in 1994. Last year he completed a further Bachelor of Arts and Design at the University of Western Sydney.

His work has been exhibited in group and solo exhibitions and he was a finalist for the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship in 2001 and 2000. He is currently Artist in Residence at St Vincents Hospital in Melbourne.

In order to financially support his painting Ben learnt the craft of video editing and is now an editor for television news and current affairs.

Commenting on the award, Ben says: �I can think of a million amazing and inspiring things to do in Paris, I could spend three months in the Louvre alone! Winning this Scholarship will give me the luxury that all artists dream of � time to concentrate 100% of my painting and travel to inspirational places.�

Born in Kenthurst, NSW Ben comments, � I love the peace the bush offers. When I lived in Kenthurst I became close to the artist, Frank Hodgkinson and his wife Kate who also lived there. After receiving a mistaken phone call from the writer Morris West I realised that the Hodgkinsons� number was one numeral off ours; as a young painting student I called, and over the next eight years became close friends with them both up until Frank�s death last year.�

Mrs Beryl Whiteley made the funds for the annually awarded Brett Whiteley Art Scholarship available in 1999. Her inspiration for the scholarship was the profound influence the awarding of the Travelling Art Scholarship had on her young son, Brett Whiteley.

Entry for Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship is open to Australian artists aged between 20 and 30. The Scholarship comprises an amount of $25,000 and a 3-month residency at Cit� Internationale des Arts in Paris, which is administered by the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Artist Margaret Olley, Edmund Capon, Director of the Art Gallery of New South Wales and Barry Pearce, Head Curator of Australian Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, judged this year�s Scholarship.

A total of 177 entries were received from every state and territory in Australia. 38 finalists were selected and from these a short-list of 24 will be on exhibition at the Brett Whiteley Studio in Surry Hills from Saturday 21 September to Sunday 20 October 2002.