The West Coast Artist Commission program ran from 2018–2023.
The $5000 acquisitive West Coast Artist Commission celebrates the talented visual artists living in Western Lutruwita/Tasmania through the creation of an annual commissioned artwork, with the artworks accumulating to build a local collection representing artists and arts practitioners of the region. The program has awarded $30,000 of funding to West Coast visual artists and formed a collection of pieces illustrating a conceptual link to the western fringe of Lutruwita/Tasmania.
The Unconformity West Coast Artist Commission was supported through Arts Tasmania by the Minister for the Arts.
2023 – Raymond Arnold
Raymond has lived and worked in Queenstown, a mining town on the West Coast of Lutruwita/Tasmania, for 18 years.
He has continued to work in the mediums of printmaking and painting with solo exhibitions both interstate and in Lutruwita/Tasmania, including the Australian National Galleries and Bett Gallery, Hobart. In 2022, Raymond completed a major work for permanent installation at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston. Additionally, the National Gallery of Australia has recently acquired a major work for its collection.
In addition to his artistic practice, Raymond set up and ran Landscape Art Research Queenstown (LARQ) from 2006 to 2015, where he hosted exhibitions, residencies and publications with his partner Helena Demczuk. More recently, he and Helena have established PressWEST Tasmania; a communal art centre with a focus on printmaking in Queenstown.
2022 – Grace Garton
Born in 1964, Grace completed a Bachelor of Visual Art at the City Art Institute in Sydney and received a Diploma in Graphic Design at TasTAFE in Nipaluna/Hobart. She worked for 27 years in Australia's animation industry as an in-betweener, props designer, character designer, layout artist and the head of a design department.
Grace has exhibited her artwork in many solo and group exhibitions in Nipaluna/Hobart and Naarm/Melbourne. In the past ten years, she has operated a small art business with fabric dolls, paintings, prints and watercolours. Many of these artworks have sold worldwide. Grace has conducted art classes for adults and children in Nipaluna/Hobart, Rosny and Rosebery.
Grace is represented by Despard Gallery in Nipaluna/Hobart's Salamanca Place and is based in Rosebery.
2021 – Annette van Betlehem
Queenstown-based painter Annette van Betlehem has painted professionally since 2005, with over ten solo exhibitions and more than 25 group exhibitions nationally and internationally. Annette has been a Glover Prize finalist in 2015, 2017 and 2021, and in 2012 was awarded a residency at the Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris. Her paintings hang in collections in New York, The Netherlands, Italy, Parliament House in Nipaluna/Hobart and elsewhere in Australia.
The West Coast region's extreme weather, lush and wild rainforest and geology are core themes in Annette's work. Over time, she has developed an organic, free-flowing technique of applying oil paint to canvas using 'anything but a brush' to replicate natural processes—water flowing through rock or moss, drifting mist, wind and minerals. Annette's paintings are heavily textured and highly representational of the atmospheric West Coast landscape.
In 1997, Annette founded Hunter Street Studios, a dynamic community art space that across its five-year journey hosted workshops, exhibitions and classes and saw 180 graduates in photography, painting and ceramics. In 1990, Annette was a founding member of the Abt Railway Society whose work resulted in the initial $20m federal funding to restore the railway into one of Western Lutruwita/Tasmania's iconic tourism experiences, the West Coast Wilderness Railway.
2020 – David Fitzpatrick
David Fitzpatrick is a Queenstown person who has worked in the depths of the Mt Lyell mine and has travelled and lived abroad before returning to the West Coast in 2015. His artwork references these origins with paintings and sculptures made using materials and processes that are highly representative of the landscape and mining industry. David created a new two-dimensional artwork representative of Queenstown by focusing his unique industrial method on a piece that represents the mountain that stands sentinel over the town, Mt Owen.
'Materiality is key in my work—working with industrial materials, I incorporate the residue from the copper-producing process, the slag metals and local clay', said David. 'There is a robust quality that I am attracted to, these materials are of this place and represent our history of intrusion to the elements of this environment.'
2019 – Joh Osborne
In 2019, West Coast artist and painter Joh Osborne was awarded the second $5000 acquisitive West Coast Artist Commission. Her paintings are abstract snapshots of animal and human behaviour, letting her intuition guide her brush strokes through a series of mark making, expressing her journey living on the West Coast through paint on canvas.
The landscape, bugs, birds, animals and people that inhabit the West Coast of Lutruwita/Tasmania create the backdrop to Joh’s paintings. The ghost of the Tasmanian Thylacine has been her most recent focus, the thought of them being around is very possible in Joh’s eyes; mysteriously hiding in a cave somewhere snacking on a juicy native rat. The Thylacine represents the wild untamed West Coast that she calls home.
2018 – Chris Wilson
In 2018, West Coast artist Chris Wilson who specialises in pastels, was awarded the prestigious West Coast Artist Commission after being chosen amongst a highly-competitive field of applicants.
Chris first came to live on the West Coast in 1976 and is well-known for her bespoke gypsy caravan that has resided across the region over the years. Now based in Queenstown, Chris’s interest and artistic focus have shifted from rainforest and coastal environments to the immense, raw ‘geoscapes’ in the local area.
Proposals will be independently assessed by a panel that includes people with knowledge of the West Coast of Lutruwita/Tasmania alongside arts industry representatives.
The proposals will be evaluated against two criteria:
- The standard, strength of concept and significance of the artwork
- The benefit for the artist and the relevance of the work to the West Coast community and the collection
Applicants should provide five images of their previous work as support for their proposal.
To assist applicants in obtaining professional photographic documentation of their artwork, The Unconformity will engage a professional photographer to document five previous works of the applicant’s choosing at The Unconformity Hall in Queenstown. Transporting of the artwork to the hall will be the responsibility of the applicant and any transport costs incurred will be at the applicant’s expense.
The images can be used as support material for the artist’s submission and will be provided to each applicant in high-resolution format for the artist’s future use, at their discretion.
If this process is not appropriate for your artwork or practice or if accessing key previous artwork is difficult or your work is digital, email maddie@theunconformity.com.au to discuss alternative options.
Applicants do not need to supply letters of support for this application. Letters of support are not accepted as artistic support material.
All West Coast artists are encouraged to apply for the West Coast Artist Commission and we will work with applicants to ensure that the application process is accessible for them.
We appreciate that the proposal form may not be suitable for everyone. If you would like support in submitting your application in a way that works best for you, please contact Maddie Korn via email at maddie@theunconformity.com.au
Applicants must be residents of the West Coast of Lutruwita/Tasmania to be eligible for the Artist Commission. We consider a West Coast resident to be:
- Someone who lives in the West Coast municipality at least 50% of the time, and has done so for at least a year.
- Someone who previously lived in the West Coast municipality for five or more cumulative years.
Past recipients of the West Coast Artist Commission are ineligible to reapply, however past applicants are encouraged to re-apply.
The proposed artworks will be displayed in public locations and must be of a professional standard and able to withstand changes in light, temperature, moisture and humidity. It is the responsibility of the artist to ensure that stable materials are used which have the ability to endure over time.
The finished artwork, including the frame, must be no larger than 1900 mm (w) x 1900 mm (h).
The completion and delivery date of the finished artwork will be negotiated between the successful artist and The Unconformity.
The successful artist will be required to sign a simple commission agreement.
The $5000 covers the artist fee, materials and the development of the accepted artwork.
The fee will be paid in two instalments; $2500 at the signing of the agreement and $2500 at the handover and installation stage. Collaborating artists are encouraged to apply, however the same $5000 artist fee applies to a collaborating commission.
The West Coast Artist Commission is supported through Arts Tasmania by the Minister for the Arts.
For more information about the program, please email The Unconformity Creative Producer Maddie Korn at maddie@theunconformity.com.au.