Local watercolourist Dave Sparkes has been selected as a finalist in the 2024 John Glover Prize, Australia’s prestigious landscape award.
The prize is awarded to the best contemporary landscape painting of Tasmania.
Mr Sparkes’ watercolour, ‘Tributary of the North Esk River,’ will be hung with the 41 other selected paintings in the Finalist’s exhibition opening March 8 in Evandale, Tasmania.
Chosen from some 740 entries worldwide, the 42 finalists are in the running for the first prize of $75,000, announced at the opening night reception at the historic Falls Park Pavilion in Evandale on March 8.
‘It’s a huge achievement for me, and something I’ve been working towards for over a decade now,’ Dave Sparkes told The Echo.
‘Art competitions are notoriously subjective, with watercolours often taking a back seat to the large oil and acrylic canvases, so it is very satisfying to be acknowledged as a watercolourist in an art prize of this stature. It already feels like a win, but of course first place would be incredible.’
Mr Sparkes is a five time finalist in the BAM Art Prize, and a finalist in the 2023 Elaine Bermingham Watercolour Prize, the 2022 Heysen Prize for Landscape and the 2022 Bluethumb Art Prize.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
