LANDSCAPE painter Angus Nivison of Walcha yesterday won the $15,000 Wynne Prize for landscape painting for the first time, for a poignant work titled Remembering Rain.
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Mr Nivison was last week shortlisted for both the Archibald and the Wynne, but being a landscape painter it was the Wynne he had coveted most since he started painting professionally in 1978.
"Being on the coat tails of the Archibald it has a certain kudos," Mr Nivison said.
On his way to collect the Wynne Prize in the bowels of the art gallery, he laughed that once you reached a certain standard a huge amount of luck determined whether you "got up".
"It's a strange feeling. I had no idea I would win. I wasn't even going to in (for the announcement) and for some reason I did."
Remembering Rain is a 6.4 metre long abstract painting that the artist said had a "quiet majesty".
"It's a lovely melancholy painting about remembering things," Mr Nivison said."For me it is about remembering rain, which is exactly what you do in times of drought. It is about longing for something or someone and it never being quite as good as it was."
Mr Nivison said painting was a singular thing, particularly in the country, and there were some days when he asked himself "Why am I doing this?" Yesterday was not one of them.
"It's nice to be recognised by your peers, it's like someone saying 'Good on you'."
