Artist Jo Higgins with her painting, “If a Tree could Talk”. Photo: Supplied.
BY MIKE HIGGINS
Jo Higgins, a Wynnum Artist, winner of the 2019 Wynnum Manly Yacht Club art competition and supply school teacher at Redlands Christian College, was selected as one of only 38 finalists nationwide for the annual Gallipoli Memorial Club’s Gallipoli $20,000 art prize in Sydney.
The Gallipoli Memorial Club (www.gallipoli.com.au) was started by a group of Gallipoli veterans in 1916. The art prize was announced in 2005 by then Prime Minister John Howard and is open to artists in Australia, New Zealand and Turkey. An equivalent annual art competition is also held in Turkey.
Art pieces are selected and judged against the club’s creed, “to preserve the special qualities of loyalty, respect, love of Country, courage and comradeship which were personified by the heroes of the Gallipoli campaign and bequeathed to all humanity as a foundation of perpetual peace and universal freedom”.
Jo’s painting is entitled “If a Tree could Talk”.
“When I walk past the descendant of the original Lone Pine at the school’s entrance, I imagine what that tree would have witnessed as the battle loomed and thought…if only it could have warned our brave troops of what lay waiting,” explained Jo.
“For me, that tree represents a silent voice that keeps the past ever present. Like many Australians, I had family who served in Gallipoli, Egypt and France in WW1, so Anzac Day is important to me and my family. I was thrilled to be selected as part of this remembrance.”
The exhibition is available to view online at www.gallipoliartprize.org.au.
