General News
10 January, 2025
BEST OF 2024: Geoff Thomas wins ceramics art prize
The first night of Dunedoo’s 2024 Art Unlimited exhibition attracted a generous crowd of nearly 400 people, ranging from art enthusiasts to experts.
First published June 27, 2024.
Gilgandra local and ceramics artist Geoff Thomas was awarded the Acen Australia Prize for Ceramics at Art Unlimited 2024. The event is Dunedoo’s annual art competition and exhibition, and it had a triumphant opening for its 2024 event on Saturday, June 22.
There were nearly 400 entries this year, with a significant turnout of enthusiasts and guests. The event was “an undeniable success,” according to organisers. “The opening night was a testament to the thriving art community and the enduring appeal of this annual exhibition. The evening showcased exceptional talent across four main categories of hanging art, photography, ceramics, and printmaking, highlighting the vibrancy and diversity of the artistic community.”
Food was prepared by the Dunedoo Central School food technology students, and wines supplied by Bunnamagoo Wines in Mudgee. Guests were welcomed by Dunedoo Lions Club president, Graham Potbury, before Nick Lowther from ABC Western Plains took to the stage as MC.
Local artist Geoff Thomas, a wheat, sheep, and cattle farmer by trade, won first prize for his Anagama Fired Square Bottle ceramic work (pictured, right). He has long been an enthusiast of wood-fired ceramics, particularly anagama pottery, which is produced through a special kind of kiln – or ceramic oven – originating from East Asia.
Geoff began potting in 1972 and is largely self-taught. He has attended many workshops in Australia and went on a study tour of Japan in 1983. For several years, he taught the art of ceramics at TAFE in Gilgandra and Warren. Art Unlimited is hardly Geoff’s first exhibition. In 2022, at the Western Plains Cultural Centre, he held an exhibition titled ‘All About the Material’. It was an exhibition of Geoff’s “prolific practice,” according to Regional Arts NSW. “[It] explores both the materiality and processes involved in creating wood-fired pottery… [reflecting] his own identity and roles as farmer and potter, using clay as the medium to convey beauty within both worlds.”
