Canberra artist Samantha Corbett wins student section of National Capital Art Prize

The 23-year-old Australian National University student, originally from Lennox Head on the NSW North Coast, won the prize with a lockdown-inspired work called We all waited for it to pass.

The painting was quickly snapped up by an astute buyer as all the entries in the prize went online.

More than 1000 entries were received across five categories in the prize, with the open prize winner Janne Kearney from Victoria with her artwork All Day Sucker.

Samantha was thrilled to win her section.

"It's very exciting. I wasn't expecting it and the exposure has been really good," she said.

"I guess, going into it knowing it was the first year of the prize, I really had no expectations at all of what type of artists or artwork there would be. But it was really great to be a part of it and all the artists I've met through it has been really good."

The winners were selected from 121 shortlisted works. There were no restrictions on subject matter.

Panel judge member Justice John Sackar, President of Arts Law, said the entries were "a joyful mixture of industry, imagination and, of course, skill".

"There is a rich diversity about them, and they have all been created in what must have been the most difficult time our planet has faced in living memory," he said.

"This competition is a wonderful beginning, to what I am confident, in due course, will become an annual institution."

Open winner Janne Kearney received a $15,000 prize.

"This prize has come as very welcome news to me and my family," she said.

"My husband passed away earlier this year, diagnosed with cancer in 2019, so the last two years have been incredibly difficult. This is the first painting I have created since then. I am thrilled and incredibly honoured."

Samantha's prize was $2500 for art supplies.

"It's good because it forces me to put the money back into my art practice, which something you sometimes forget to do," she said, with a laugh.

"I think I'll buy quite a few canvases and art supplies to set me up."

Her work, We all waited for it to pass, was a nod to the COVID lockdowns.

"I guess I was inspired a lot by my friends when we were in isolation last year and only seeing each other online and not able to see each other in person," she said.

"I guess it was about how we were all sitting around, not really doing nothing, but also doing nothing. It was that kind of feeling of waiting alone but all together as well. Kind of that in-between period.

"The style reflects that as well, in terms of it being very abstract but there's areas that have figures in them. It's kind of between the known and unknown."

So waiting for "it" to pass - was that lockdown?

"It's kind of open to interpretation," Samantha said.

"It was the lockdown and the pressures of not being able to work and finishing uni. So it was a bit about everything. It was really about what the view saw in it."

Philanthropist and National Capital Art Prize founder Robert Stephens said the new annual prize was established to promote culturally-diverse artistic endeavours and provide a forum where art could be viewed, studied, critiqued and sold.

"I've always wanted to see Canberra host a nationally recognised and acclaimed art prize which celebrates works of any subject and continues every year long into the future," he said.

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