AME Bale Travelling Scholarship and Art Prize 2022 winners

Artist Rick Crossland was announced as the 2020 winner of the prestigious $50,000 A.M.E Bale Travelling Scholarship, managed by Perpetual as trustee of the Alice Marian Ellen Bale Art Foundation Trust.

The A.M.E. Bale Travelling Scholarship and Art Prize is awarded biennially to emerging Australian artists who have demonstrated talent and achievement in traditional styles.  This prestigious art prize is intended to encourage, support and advance the classical training of emerging artists (in their early to mid-career) at any stage of life, who are pursuing the study and practice of traditional art and who desire to study the works of old masters.

Painting of a mantlepiece with a vase with leaves and pig ornament
Rick Crossland | On the mantlepiece 2022 | Oil on canvas on board | 36 x 51cm
Painting of a house in a farm setting
Rick Crossland | Home 2022 | Oil on board | 25 x 35 cm
Portrait painting of George Davis
Rick Crossland | George Davis at 91. 2022 | Oil on canvas 61 x 76cm
Charcoal drawing of a nude woman at the bedroom window
Rick Crossland | Ann at the bedroom window 2022 | Charcoal on paper | 65 x 40 cm

In addition to the main Travelling Scholarship, two art prizes valued at $5,000 each are also awarded biennially. The 2022 A.M.E. Bale Art Prize in the medium of oils and/or acrylics was awarded to Rick Crossland for his painting The sleep-in and the 2022 A.M.E. Bale Art Prize for works on paper was given to Jo Reitze for her work At the Lon.

Painting of a person asleep in bed
Rick Crossland | The sleep-in | Oil on board | 29 x 39cm
Painting of trees by the coastline
Jo Reitze | At the Lon 2022 | Gouache on paper | 110 x 109 cm

The A.M.E Bale Travelling Scholarship and Art Prize is managed by Perpetual Trustee Company — a part of the Perpetual group — as the trustee of the Alice Marian Ellen Bale Art Foundation Trust.  

A.M.E Bale

A.M.E. Bale was born in Melbourne in 1875 and studied art under Frederick McCubbin and L Bernard Hall at the National Gallery Art School in Melbourne. She developed a reputation as a fine artist who distinguished herself particularly as one of Australia’s pre-eminent flower and still life painters of the early 20th Century. She established the A.M.E. Bale Travelling Scholarship and Art Prize through her will to support Australian artists in perpetuity.

View the exhibition of finalists online

The works by the Award winners are featured in the exhibition of finalists which showcases the impressive works by the artists selected by the judging panel in the Major Award Travelling Scholarship, Oils or Acrylics and Works on Paper categories.