The annual exhibition opened in Barraba last night, with 140 people turning out to see the many works on display in pottery, painting, sculpture, printmaking, pastels, drawings, pottery and photography.

Winning works from Gunnedah included Passing Showers by Maree Kelly, Tree Cat by Julie Laurie and Portrait of Man by youngster Julian Heath.

Maree Kelly received $2500 and the title of Best Work of Art for her oil painting depicting a green landscape. Julie Laurie won Best Sculpture and $350 for her wire work of a woman, and Julian Heath $100 for Best Children’s Artwork.

Mrs Kelly’s work was among almost 200 entries judged by Walcha artist Angus Nivison who said it was a “well-constructed and painted work”.

“It was no easy choice although it was one of only two works considered for this prize – in other words it almost picked itself,” he said.

“In the end, it was it's sense of place – it took me straight to that grey day, to those passing showers. It has a great sense of peace, of beauty, [and] it celebrates the humbleness of a quiet scene. 

“It is not solving the world's problems, but rather celebrating the quietness of beauty, taking joy in the small moment of time between showers.”

Mrs Kelly said it was lovely to have her work chosen by Mr Nivison.

“Angus is a New England artist I’ve always admired and I’ve followed his career. It was nice to know he liked my work,” she said.

The contemporary landscape artist said she has won Best Work of Art before but was still “a little bit surprised”.

Passing Showers was painted after “the last good rainfall we had”.

“It’s all green, which is a bit different to now… I wish the landscape looked a bit more like that at the moment,” Mrs Kelly said.

The artist said it was “really lovely” to see Julie Laurie’s wire work on display at Barraba. Ms Laurie is self-taught in wire art and said she is “delighted” to win the sculpture award for Tree Cat.

“We’ve got a couple of cats as pets so I thought it would be nice to do one of those and I had a little bit of wire left over,” Ms Laurie said.

“It probably took me about two-and-a-half weeks but I’ve got a few critics around home who told me it needed to be doing something, so I had it jumping down out of a tree. I love things that are moving and look as if they’re doing something.

“I had a lot of trouble trying to get his tail right so he was balanced but he all came together the night before, I think it was.”

Judge Anna Henderson said it was “a very intricate way of creating a simple form”.   

“Great movement – I can feel the cat about to jump,” she said.

The artist is now looking to a new project for the 48^th Gunnedah Art and Ceramics Exhibition.

This year’s judge of the children’s artwork section was Andrea Bruno who said Julian Heath’s work had “lovely repetition with variety”.

“It was very hard to choose an overall winner but I came back to this,” he said.

“You have to discover him. He is hidden in the design.”