Photo by Aaron Camens, taken at Lake Callabonna Fossil Locality
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FUPS Australian Palaeoart Competition
Palaeoart Winners
Congratulations to the following Palaeoart Winners!
Reece Wilczek
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Australian Megafauna Cartoon Portrait
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Judges comments:
This is brilliant and pure fun. I love the composition, the colours, the shadowing, the cartoonification of the anatomy. I think it’s really clever and super-engaging. It would be an amazing logo for a product or service primarily targeting a younger audience.
It’s great to see the Oz megafauna portrayed in a cartoon format. This really stands out because it’s so different to the way we usually see them in reconstructions. And they’re happy!
Alison Worsnop
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Trilobites
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Judges comments:
The texture and light of Alison’s two works give them a magical air. They are beautiful pieces. The fish piece conveys the impression of animals inhabiting an ethereal realm halfway between the living and fossil worlds.
The colours in the trilobite piece are amazing and evocative of the oxidised iron sediments characteristic of many Australian fossil deposits. There’s also a great balance here between a recent death assemblage, with the carcasses settling on the sea bottom, and the transition to the way we often see trilobites preserved as fossils. I’ve been staring at it for about 5 minutes – are they alive or are they fossils? They look as though they are slowly embedding themselves in the rock.
Nellie Pease
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Thylacoleo carnifex: Lion Around
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Judges comments:
This is a very sweet depiction of an unguarded Thylacoleo. I love its subtlety, its depiction of an utterly common behaviour, or lack thereof more to the point. Palaeo-artists often focus on depicting extinct animals with mouth agape, on the rampage or doing something very active. Although I realise this animal is just resting, it also reminds me of what it was like spending days lying alongside Nullarbor Thylacoleo #1, imaging it lying down exhausted and eventually stopping breathing.
Big fan of this one - serene! The spaces between the lines are as important in the detail as the lines themselves. I like that the pose is very non-traditional - how often do you get to see a big Thylacoleo butt?
Thank you and well done to everyone who submitted art work to FUPS first Palaeoart competition!
All submission were beautiful and can be viewed in our online gallery.
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