2019 – Retrospective in the Lesser Hall

From time-to-time, the Darlington Arts Festival runs retrospectives of well known, local artists. This year we are delighted to announce that we will be celebrating the work of D Thornton Hick. Thornton created a remarkable body of work including paintings, sculpture and furniture. The retrospective will be held in the Lesser Hall.
Consequently, due to limitations of space the Reserve Art Prize will not be offered this year. However in 2019 the Open Art Prize includes a new $5,000 prize – the DAFA (Darlington Arts Festival Award). This award is not acquisitive. Click here to find more information.
Reserve Art Prize 2018
Reserve Art Prize 2018 | Judges Choice | $10,000
The winner chosen by the judges was: Simon McArdell for his acrylic and beeswax, landscape painting – Flesh (Quarry Wall).




This work attempts to capture a moment of poise within a system of decay. The progressive flensing and destruction of a hill creating new worlds with new systems following the same entropic laws.
Reserve Art Prize 2018 | Peoples Choice Award | $500
More than 1,000 votes were cast over the weekend. We are pleased to announce that you voted for ‘Field of Dreams’ by Janet Day.




2017 Reserve Art Prize




2016 – Robert Juniper Landscape Award




The 2018 exhibition….
…was truly a success. The quality of the entries was outstanding. The curator had a tough job, to whittle down the entries into just the right number, but what was left flowed perfectly.
This year we introduced the Peoples Choice award. Within the gallery, there was something for everyone and the contrast between the darkness of the judges choice and the brightness of the Peoples Choice was beautiful. Both very worthy winners of their prizes!
We would like to thank the highly esteemed curator and judges for last year:
Belinda Kay
Life Part I…Belinda has a Certificate in Trade Studies and as a mature aged student gained her Diploma in Arts (Interior Design) and subsequently her Bachelor of Arts (Fine Arts) at Curtin University… Life Part II
As a freelance curator for the last eighteen years she has seen some amazing Western Australian artwork.
Belinda currently runs the gallery at Houghton’s Winery where she is enthusiastic in promoting WA artists in all mediums.
We also welcomed two new judges to the Festival!
Judges in 2018
Pauline White
…is a fervent advocate of creativity in all its forms and has shared her knowledge as a university lecturer in Visual arts, as a curator, a community artist, public art coordinator and art exhibitor. Her main personal focus has been an investigation into our tenuous relationship with our home on planet earth hence her work is mostly site specific and ephemeral.
and….