The 2020 Town of Murals Art and Craft Festival was a great success, with almost 600 people through the doors.
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The festival - which brought together the Town of Murals Art Show and the Kurri Sunrise Rotary Craft Affair - was held at the former Betta Electrical premises in Lang Street from Thursday to Sunday.
Mulbring artist Susanne Gorring took out the major prize with her traditional painting, Our Ozzie Kids.
"I was completely shocked at the announcement," she said on receiving the $2000 major prize, sponsored by Cessnock City Council.
"This painting started out as something completely different. I wasn't sure how I was going to proceed so I painted the sky and the colour made it a beach scene.
"From there, the addition of the two children and the cattle dog was natural."
Acting director of Muswellbrook Regional Arts Centre, Sarah English (who grew up in Abermain) had the tough task of judging the 151 artworks that were submitted for the show.
"Sarah was highly impressed with the quality of entries," art show coordinator Sharon Dyson-Smith said.
"She commented several times on the difficulty of the decision-making."
Gorring also won the pen, pencil and ink on paper category with her work titled The Flood, 1955.
Other category winners included:
- Traditional (Marcia Maybury Memorial): Eugenia Dunlevie, Landscape Study Hunter
- Contemporary: Polina Karuso, Innocence
- Watercolour: Helen Elphinstone-King, Yeehaw
- Still life or flowers: Spring Wild Flowers Kaye Lovie
- Ronald Nicholls Memorial Miniature Award: Verona Lucas, Silent Wonder
- Aboriginal: Vickie Purvis, Community Connections
- Seniors: Dorothy Bell, Flame Fury
- Senior Youth: Mollie Lennon, My Pony Stormy
- Youth: Jorja Jensen, Jack's Adventure
The festival also included a fascinating display of historic photographs from the Sir Edgeworth David Memorial Museum, which is due to reopen soon at its new home, the former Abermain School of Arts.
