Celebrated veteran Canberra region artist Alison Alder has won the $7000 major prize in the 2025 Queanbeyan-Palerang Regional Council and Bendigo Bank Art Awards for her woven work, Budawang II.

An abstract weaving with a range of block colours, it was created with wool dyed with native plants foraged at the foothills of Mt Budawang.

The judges Yvette Dal Pozzo and Anna Wong, who assessed all artworks “blind” (that is without the name of the artists being visible) said: “The work not only conveys the artist’s deep connection to the land – it is quite literally made from it.”

More than 65 local artists were celebrated at The Q Exhibition Space on Saturday with an unprecedented crowd packing in to view the exhibits.

Lisa Stevenson’s A Pain in the Chest, winner of the 3D Art Award, was described as a ‘”delicate woven sculptural work created by a single length of jute, that through connective stitching formed the intricate curves and form of the human heart”.

Mayor Kenrick Winchester said the brushstrokes in The Burrow and Beyond, by Kahli McLeod, winner of the Mayor’s Acquisitive Heritage Award, conveyed the personality and attitude of the Bare Nosed Wombat beautifully.

The Highly Commended work by Ray Monde, I was Taken by Coming Back from the Front Gate, incorporated paper cuttings from a variety of sources, arranged and overpainted to form a whimsical representation of our landscapes beyond the city limits.

Uncertainty, by Roland Aronsen, won the Bendigo Pick Award, while Thirty Six, by Fiona Little won the Bendigo Pick Photography Award, with Bendigo’s judges impressed with the contrast of the work between light and dark.

The $1000 Viewer’s Choice Award is now open for voting at The Q Exhibition Space until June 14.

Art award winners

• $7000 QPRC Major Acquisitive Award – Budawang II by Alison Alder
• $3000 Mayors Acquisitive Heritage Award – The Burrow and Beyond by Kahli McLeod
• $1000 Mayors Highly Commended Heritage Award – Coming back from the front gate by Ray Monde
• $3000 3D Art Award – A pain in the Chest by Lisa Stevenson
• $1000 Highly Commended 3D Art Award – Vernacular temperament by Martin Rowney
• $2000 Youth Emerging Artist Award (16-25) – The Storytellers Gaze by Abbie Johnson
• $3000 First Nations Award – Spring by Rhonda Kennedy
• $1000 Highly Commended First Nations Award – My Heart my Country by Gail Neuss
• $2000 Bendigo Pick Award – Uncertainty by Roland Aronsen
• $1000 Bendigo Pick Photography Award – Thirty Six by Fiona Little