Monash Master of Fine Art candidate awarded the 2024 Muswellbrook Art Prize for Painting

Monash Master of Fine Art candidate, Eleanor Louise Butt, has been awarded the prestigious 2024 Muswellbrook Art Prize for Painting.

Their work, ‘Yellow and Brown Energetic Abstraction’ (2024), won the $50,000 acquisitive award which will see Eleanor’s work added to the Muswellbrook collection, which includes previous winners such as David Aspden, Sydney Ball, Richard Larter and Fred Williams.

Eleanor Louise Butt, 𝙔𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘽𝙧𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙀𝙣𝙚𝙧𝙜𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙘 𝘼𝙗𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 (2024), oil on linen 152 x 168cm. Photograph Matthew Stanton.

Established in 1958, the Muswellbrook Art Prize is one of the most celebrated prizes for painting in regional Australia. Astute adjudication of the Prize over the years has yielded an excellent collection of modern and contemporary Australian paintings, works on paper and ceramics from the Post War period of the 20th Century and into the 21st Century, with the winning acquisitive works forming the nucleus of what is now known as the Muswellbrook Shire Art Collection.

Previous winners of the Muswellbrook Art Prize include such key figures as David Aspden, Sydney Ball, Richard Larter and Fred Williams. The Upper Hunter Region is also well represented with a number of local artists being successful in winning the Prize including Peter Atkins, Dale Frank, Lyn Nash and Hanna Kay.