The Wynne prize was established as a prize for Australian landscape in any medium. At times, there is also a Pring Prize for women water-colourists. John McDonald, [art critic] once said that landscape and Indigenous art give unique aspects to art in Australia. Roberta has taken the landscape and imbued this subject with a personal “inner landscape” as described by John Conroy. Once again, Roberta takes this subject, conveying the inner landscape through a multi-layered approach as she explores ways of expressing the mystical which is, after all, ineffable.
Throughout her career, Roberta has focused on a number of themes within her artwork. She is able to achieve a high level of excellence and sentience in the fields of landscape, genre, religious and spiritual themes. Shown here is a watercolor painting Mangroves, 1989, selected as a finalist in the Wynne water color prize called the Pring Prize for women artists. Roberta’s profound perception of the landscape is rendered with much sensibility and subtlety in Mangroves, executed with the most minimal of palettes, meandering line, delicate wash, and translucency.
