Archibald prize in Goulburn

Two years out of three we take a trip to Sydney to see that year’s Archibald prize finalists at AGNSW.

This was one of the years we didn’t, but instead went to Coonabarabran for a long weekend. However the NSW government has been touring the Archibald prize finalists round the state, and this month it was Goulburn’s turn, only an hour down the freeway, so off we went on a crisp cold southern Highlands winter day.

I’m sure the organisers were glad there was a small set of finalists this year, as they only just fitted into the exhibition space at Goulburn arts centre. Of the finalists I particularly liked

• Marc de Jong’s sixties pop art inspired semi pointillist portait of Janice Petersen
• Kevin Connor’s self portrait – I have a weakness for blue swirly things
• Paul Ryan’s minimalist portrait of Danie Mellor, just built from swirls of colour and texture

None of the rest said anything much to me, but as always your mileage may vary.

Afterwards, lunch in a cafe overlooking the square and a wander looking at the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century architecture, including some nice art deco houses. A return trip for some architectural photography is on the cards while we still have the winter light…

And it was enjoyable to have some cultural downtime after what had been fairly intense week with the ANDS bootcamp (and the joys of being employed by the host institution which meant lunchtime networking time disappeared into solving other unrelated problems with other projects), reconnecting with old friends and colleagues from the digital preservation world, not to mention meetings with potential project partners.

To add to the insanity I’ve also been getting stuff together for a project bamboo meeting in the states next week, which made the experience of a leisurely afternoon in Goulburn all the more precious ….

{My rather disjointed bootcamp notes are also online}