A collision of 25 years of walking through the South Coast's forests and along its waterways inspired the inaugural Escape ARTfest Art Prize winner.
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Ray Firth, who has owned a place at Bendalong since the early 1990s, was awarded the $4,000 prize for his striking panorama painting Reckless Wonder Conjola which depicted the landscape from Green Island to Pigeon House Mountain.
Mr Firth first exhibited in 1982 and is now a part of a little cooperative known as Shop 3 Gallery in Milton.
When he accepted the award Mr Firth said it was great to be recognised and it was "very, very kind" of the judges to select his work from the 59 entries.
Libby Wakefield's atmospheric Towards the Sea and Rodney Hayes' exquisite series of 'Nine views: Durras Mountain meets the Sea were each awarded highly commended in the major prize category.
Judges Penny Lovelock, Davida Penny, Robert Hollingworth and Megan Seres were impressed not only by the number of entries but also by the impressive quality and the diversity of styles.
Milton's Nikki Fletcher was awarded the Emerging Artist Art Prize for her painting Peonies at Dusk.
Mrs Fletcher said she was "a bit" shocked to hear her name called, collecting $1,000 in the process.
"I started doing art in the last two years," she said. "I love flowers, I love peonies so I created them with oils."
Mr Hollingworth, said that with the high quality of entries the judges looked for an emerging artist with a voice.
Anja Adams with her watercolour, Upswing, and Greta Michelson with her abstract painting, Touching the Lake (Conjola), were both awarded highly commended.
A ceremony, held at the Ulladulla Civic Centre on Friday, was attended by Escape ARTFest finalists, their families and friends.
Sponsor and local solicitor Anthony Fondacaro, who presented the winners their prizes, said he was impressed by the number and the quality of the works submitted.
"Recognising the creativity of these works through the ARTfest prize is such a valuable addition to our community."
Chief organiser of Escape ARTfest, Sue Brodie, was delighted with the response to this first year of the Art Prizes.
"The festival gets better and bigger each year and to see the response from artists, near and far, taking part in the Prize has been amazing."
