Laura Matthews has won the 2019 "Naked and Nude Art Prize" at the Manning Regional Gallery with her work "Sea Creatures".

The judge of this year's prize, Denise Mimmocchi, commented

"This beautifully composed painting may be a landscape (or seascape) but it is one that pivots around the formation of the two female figures. Their connection to each other and to their beach setting is the true subject of the work. Despite the agitated surface texture of this painting; one that encapsulates the perpetual motion of the ocean setting, the work exudes a great sense of calm and intimacy. The figures here do indeed appear as ‘sea creatures’ as they are drawn into their environment, and lead us, as viewers, in with them.  What small detail, we wonder, that has caught their attention on the shore?

The painting is ultimately such a successful one as it is charged with a strong sense of the physicality of the figures and the human connection between them and their environment."

The exhibition is on show until Sunday 13 October. Visit mrag.midcoast.nsw.gov.au for more information.

Laura Matthews has also been selected as a semi-finalist in the 2019 Moran National Portrait Prize