Kiwi gets $25K Gallipoli prize

SYDNEY - A sombre depiction of the desolation facing the Anzacs in Turkey won New Zealand artist Euan MacLeod the prestigious Gallipoli Art Prize in Sydney today.

The Christchurch-born artist picked up a A$20,000 ($25,777) cheque and became the first New Zealander to win the Gallipoli Memorial Club's award in its four-year history.

Now based in Sydney, Mr MacLeod beat 125 other entries from New Zealand, Australia and Turkey for the artist who "best depicts the spirit of the Gallipoli campaign".

Entitled Smoke ink Landscape/Shovel, the oil panting which sold last year for A$6000 ($7733) shows a solitary shovel standing above a trench amid a muddy, smoky, churned up background.

Judge John McDonald said Mr MacLeod's work was a unanimous choice for the four judges.

"It doesn't show a great battle, or blood and guts and guns firing in all directions. It doesn't show it in a violent way at all, it shows it in a quiet, understated manner."

"There's nobody around and we have a sense of the tremendous loneliness and desolation that people felt at that particular time -- the sense of brooding and waiting for something to happen, and usually something pretty nasty."

The award added to Mr MacLeod's impressive CV which includes the prestigious Archibald Prize in 1999 and the Sulman Prize in 2001.

He studied at Canterbury University for a Diploma in Fine Arts and moved to Sydney in 1981where he now teaches at the National Art School.

Mr MacLeod said winning the prize was an easier task than the acceptance speech before a crowd of fellow artists, critics and media.

"I feel like I'm in the trenches and there's all these... things looking at me," he said.

"As a painter it's tricky because you're asked to talk about your work all the time and I find that a weird side of it. I think I painted in the first place because I found talking so bloody awful."

Mr MacLeod harboured ambitions of being a war artist, "but my wife (Susan) said no".

Having lived half his life in New Zealand and half in Australia, he felt an even stronger connection with Gallipoli when his eldest daughter, Bridget, was born on Anzac Day 22 years ago.

"She was born at dawn which is kind of lovely, quite a special thing for our family," he said.

He admitted his paintings are "never pretty -- big globs of paint fall on the floor and I just stick then back on"; but they focused on harsh environments which made the award even more appealing.

A painting trip to Wellington and scenic Makara Beach last week brought home the significance of the Gallipoli landscape.

"That area around Makara, I reckon that's what it must be like, those cliffs, it's scary to try and fight in those conditions.

"I guess it's about the loneliness of the landscape, not necessarily the physical battles, but also life's battles. " Mr MacLeod admitted he still struggled with the concept of entering and winning a competition against a lineup of equally worthy entries, although the prize money made it slightly easier to stomach.

"Hell yes, I think it's going to get a lot tougher financially for visual artists. I hope they don't hate me."

- NZPA