MANSFIELD’S Three Faces Art Prize ‘Unveiling’ dinner was held at the Delatite Hotel last Thursday June 6.

It was a great turnout with approximately 80 people in attendance including 2023 Citizen of the Year Cathie Smith who was revealed as the sitter for this year’s prize at ‘The Reveal’ on May 3.

In the youth section, the runners up were Amanda Duhamel and Emily Doig who created a colourful portrait using chalk pastels.

The $500 youth prize went to 16-year-old Elsie Leatham for her artwork created with the digital software Procreate.

“It took seven hours in total,” Elsie said.

“I did most of it in one day, and then I finished it a couple of weeks ago.

“When I first met Cathie she reminded me of a cool fairy godmother and that is what inspired the artwork.

“On Procreate I sketch it out and colour it in just like a traditional painting.

“It can be just as challenging as painting physically, because you need to learn how to use the software and all of its functions.”

The runners up in the adult section were Gino Ciancio and Felicity Hayward with her mixed media collage work.

The $2000 adult prize went to Benalla artist Kym Stubbs for her portrait of Cathie Smith painted with pastels.

This was Kym’s second time winning the prize after her 2016 portrait of Bruce Bingham.

“I have been doing portraiture and comprehensive pastel painting for around 25 years,” Kym said.

Kym said it took her a number of weeks to complete the portrait.

“I was having lots of trouble with distortions looking through my reading glasses and I couldn’t get it right, so I bought a cheap pair of magnifying glasses and it worked perfectly,” she said.

“When I paint with pastels, I have to think about how the colours will look after I put the coating on top, because some pigments are stronger than others and it often changes the final product."

Kym said the portrait of Cathie is a realism style painting.

“I prefer to work from photos, so I try and capture a person’s personality with a series of images while they are talking and animated,” she said.

“When I was painting Bruce in 2016, he put on his soldiers uniform and became very stiff, also he was not a person I knew prior to the competition.

“I took lots of photos and just wasn’t capturing his personality, so it wasn’t until I said that I was done that he relaxed."

Kym said the Three Faces Art Prize is a great way to honour the participants who have done really good things for the community inspiring others to give volunteering a go.