Madge Bowen wins Remote Artist Award

Madge Bowen from Hope Vale Art Centre in Queensland has won the Remote Artist Award at the Queensland Regional Art Awards (QRRA) for her work titled Maramaka. The prize will see her enjoy a fully funded one-week residency at McGregor Summer School valued at $2,500.

QRAA is an annual visual arts prize and exhibition for established and emerging artists living in regional and remote Queensland. The program aims to provide a platform for further professional development. Artists who reside outside of the Brisbane City Council boundary are eligible to enter the Queensland Regional Art Awards.

Madge says of her winning work, “I always like to paint my traditional homeland of Bulgan (Kings Plain). I feel a deep spiritual connection to my land, and the sacred sites on it, including the plants and the animals. Maramaka is a kind of fig tree that grows in Far North Queensland, and there are lots of them on my homeland. I love to paint them, because even though my family no longer live on my land, when I see one, I feel that deep connection to Bulgan.”