Last year KwaZulu-Natal artist Heather Gourlay-Conyngham won the first Sanlam Private Investments National Portrait Award and prize money of R100000 for her nude male portrait A Young Man.
Gourlay-Conyngham's portrait was judged the best out of 1783 entries and is one of 39 portraits now touring South Africa.
Gourlay-Conyngham is based in Hilton in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands, where she has worked as an art teacher and painter since graduating with a BA Fine Arts from the University of Natal in 1978 and a Higher Education Diploma in 1980.
Nicholas Allen's portrait of a seated woman with a red skirt and blue ribbons, called 'L'Hommage à Ingres: African Chic(k): Ms Tshegofatso Phage Seated, and Ashley Bothma's head and shoulders portrait of a young man, Modern Youth, also feature in the exhibition.
The SPI National Portrait Award was initiated in collaboration with the Rust-en-Vrede Gallery in Durbanville, Cape Town, and is modelled on the London-based National Portrait Gallery's BP Portrait Award. That award was won by a South African artist, Susanne du Toit, last year. Du Toit was one of the judges of the SPI National Portrait Award.
The competition welcomed entries in any medium, excluding photography, television and film. The 40 works are on exhibition at KZNSA Gallery in Durban from today. Call 031-277-1705 or go to www.kznsagallery.co.za
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