Local Newbridge Artist, David Lake recently won first place in two sections of the Art of Sydney awards, an Abstract Paintings with a work entitled ‘Composition in Green’ and the 9 by 5-inch painting ‘Evening pastoral’ and he also placed 2nd in Oil Painting or Acrylic Painted as Oil with his work entitled ‘The Diggings Lightning Ridge.’

The Art of Sydney is an annual exhibition, now in its 31st year, showcasing the wonderful diversity of Sydney's artists featuring 300 paintings, from fourteen art societies around Sydney and the Greater Sydney Region. This year for the first time, the exhibition was presented as a virtual exhibition online.

Judge John Haycraft commented that David’s work ‘The Diggings at Lightning Ridge’ was, “A painting that breaks the rules of composition with contempt yet invites our contemplation of the subject using rhythm and hue changes with masterly arrangement.”

As a self-taught artist, David had developed his own distinctive style that has been winning him awards and commendations since 1991, including the Combined Art Societies of Sydney – Artist of the Year for 2007, 2008, and 2009.

David explained, “My art career began whilst I was at high school with an enthusiasm for both drawing and subsequently painting – an interest that was encouraged by my parents with the purchase of some low-cost sets of both watercolour and oil paints.

“Whilst I worked initially with watercolour, and painted birds and animals, it was the oil paints that really held my attention and in turn I made a transition to painting the landscape.

“For me painting the landscape is about capturing the light and atmosphere of the subject, and whilst it may essentially represent a single moment in time it is, at the same time, timeless. As Tom Roberts so eloquently stated: “By making art the perfect expression of one time and one place, it becomes for all time and of all places.”

David’s paintings have also been selected in many significant art prizes including the Country Energy Prize for Landscape Painting, The Mortimore Prize, Kogarah Art Prize, Willoughby Art Prize, Hawkesbury Art Prize, and the Korea Australia Arts Foundation Prize. He has been a finalist in the International Artist Magazine Prize for Landscape Painting on two occasions and since 2006 has collected more than one hundred 1st prizes from exhibitions across NSW.

David’s work is held in private and municipal collections in Australia and private collections overseas, including the United Kingdom, Canada, Japan, and the USA. His work can also be viewed at Olde Bridge Gallery at Newbridge open every weekend, as well as at his own Newbridge studio every first weekend as part of the Bathurst Arts trail.

Congratulations David!