Shirley Hannan Portrait Awards this weekend

June 3, 2008: The director of the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra, Andrew Sayers, will officially open the 2008 Shirley Hannan National Portrait Awards in Bega this weekend.

The awards, which are a celebration of realistic portraiture and accurate depiction, will be announced in the Bega Valley Regional Gallery at 6pm on Saturday, June 7.

Judged this year by Paul Ashton Delprat, principal of the Julian Ashton School of Art in Sydney, the Shirley Hannan National Awards rank only behind the Archibald and the Doug Moran with a first prize purse of $30,000.

Mrs Hannan was a talented artist who lived in the Bega Valley and sponsored the portrait prize for many years.

Before her death in 2005 she generously established a trust to ensure the continuation of this biennial award which attracts many of Australia’s most prominent portrait painters and competition is intense.

"The popularity of the Shirley Hannan continues to grow - we had 148 entries this year, 58 more than in 2006," Gallery director Ross Cameron said.

"From these, 35 have been selected to hang and will be judged by Paul Ashton Delprat.

"The standard is very high which made selecting the finalists a very difficult task."

The announcement of the winner will occur at 6pm on Saturday, June 7, and is open to the public.

The exhibition will continue at the Bega Valley Regional Gallery until July 5 and there will be a talk on portraiture by local artist Danielle Pirrie at noon on Wednesday, June 11. To book, phone the gallery on 6499 2187.

Gallery hours are Tuesday to Friday from 10am to 4pm and on Saturday from 9an to noon.