Following last year’s success, the Hemel-en-Aarde winery presented the ‘Tollman Bouchard
Finlayson Art Award Tondo Competition’* for a second time. As in previous
years, artists were invited to submit their works in the Bouchard Finlayson Barrel Head Exhibition. Under this
year’s theme, ‘Connections’, the works of
40 finalists were exhibited on barrel heads in Bouchard Finlayson’s wine
cellar, where they were also available for sale for
the duration of the Hermanus FynArts festival. The prestigious judging
panel was again led by independent academic, writer and curator, and former
Director of the South African National Gallery, Marilyn Martin, who this year
was joined by artist and teacher Louis van Heerden and arts consultant Mandie
van der Spuy.
The
winners were announced during an awards ceremony at Bouchard Finlayson in June.
Because of the high standard of the 125 entries, two joint winners were chosen
to share the cash prize of R30 000: Gill Allderman-Cowen and Juanita
Oosthuizen. Three merit winners – Daniel Potgieter, Anne Raubenheimer and Kathryn
Harmer Fox - each received R5 000.
*Tondo is a Renaissance term for a circular work of art – in this instance displayed on the top, flat end of a wine barrel.