2023 The Merv_A5 Brochure_CPG Print Copy

The Mervyn Moriarty Landscape
Award Exhibition
A Flying Arts Alliance Inc initiative generously
sponsored by Consolidated Properties Group
Consolidated Properties Group, Level 8/175 Eagle Street, Brisbane.
March 2023 – March 2024

2022
QUEENSLAND
REGIONAL
Art Awards
The Queensland Regional Art Awards (QRAA) is Flying Arts
Alliance Inc’s (Flying Arts) signature annual art awards for
artists living in regional, rural and remote Queensland. The
awards aim to showcase new artworks while providing a
platform for artists to receive both cash prizes and further
professional opportunities.
Flying Arts founder, Mervyn ‘Merv’ Moriarty OAM, was a significant figure in the
arts. He was an inspiring teacher and visual artist with a passion for bringing the
arts to regional, rural and remote locations. Merv learnt to fly an aircraft to achieve
this passion.
Merv first took flight in 1971. He flew solo out of Brisbane on a 6,000 km round
journey to meet with regional Queensland representatives to help establish an ‘art
school’, which is now Flying Arts.
Merv remained the principal tutor of the Flying Arts school from 1971 to 1983,
visiting approximately 26 centres four times a year, with extra trips made to
organise exhibitions and other special events. During this time, Merv undertook
over 1,250 trips and flew well over 400,000 km.
Merv left an immeasurable legacy throughout regional, rural and remote
Queensland, where a generation of artists, educators and communities gained
exposure to contemporary visual arts practice, many for the first time.
Merv’s enduring and outstanding contribution to visual art was recently recognised
in the 2023 Order of Australia Honours. In celebration of Merv’s legacy, Flying
Arts offer The Mervyn Moriarty Landscape Award as a category in the QRAA,
generously sponsored by Consolidated Properties Group.
The prize awards a landscape artwork in any medium, in homage to Merv’s
penchant for en plein air landscape painting. In the 2022 QRAA Reframe, the winner
of the award was Jan Strudwick for Sunday Morning – Ukraine.
Over 50 years on, thanks to the strong state-wide networks Merv created, Flying
Arts continues to provide transformative art experiences. The organisation has
evolved from its early days, however Merv’s vision has remained steadfast.
Thanks to our award partner, Consolidated Properties Group, the winner and
finalists of The Mervyn Moriarty Landscape Award are displayed in their Brisbane
office from March 2023 until March 2024.

1. 2. 3.
4.
5. 6. 7. 8.
9. 10. 11. 12.
1. Aaron Butt Mangrove Sandstone Point, 2022, Oil on board, 37 x 27 cm.
2. Carmen Beezley-Drake Still Life with Nature, 2022, Acrylic on paper, 61 x 54 cm.
3. Coreen Reading Kunawuna Wirrkaja (Children Dance), 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 90 cm.
4. Dolly Loogatha King Alfred’s Makarrki, 2022, Acrylic on canvas, 60.5 x 101.2 cm.
5. Helen Dennis Ephemeral Lagoon - The Boundary Fence, 2021, Acrylic on canvas, 76 x 61 cm.
6. Jan Strudwick Sunday Morning - Ukraine, 2022, Textile, 90 x 71 cm.
7. Janet Ambrose Winter Solstice, 2022, Oil on canvas, 61 x 91 cm.
8. Jo Williams Tassie Road Trip, 2022, Pen on paper, 35 x 35 cm.
9. Kylie Stevens One in Two Hundred Years, the Scale is Increasingly Irrelevant, 2022,
Floodwater, earth, copperleaf, charcoal, acrylic on canvas, 92 x 92 cm.
10. Rosie Lloyd-Giblett Nature is Wiser Than Human, 2021, Mixed media on paper, 102 x 105 cm.
11. Suzanne Furness Toxic Relationships, 2021, Silk and wool, 88 x 69.5 cm.
12. Thomas Gilmore From T.I. to Tangerang, 2022, Watercolour and ink on paper, 30 x 21 cm.

PRINCIPAL SUPPORTERS
AWARD PARTNERS
RTO 0275
Flying Arts Alliance Inc. gratefully acknowledge the Booth Memorial Fund of
Annie Tan (Yuh Siew) and the Geoff Booth Foundation, Turner Family Foundation, Woolloongabba Art
Gallery and private ‘Art For Life’ donors who help make the Queensland Regional Art Awards possible.
Flying Arts acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the lands and seas on which we work, live and create. We pay
our respects to Elders, past, present and emerging. We acknowledge the unending connection of First Nations peoples
to this country. We support the aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to Voice, Treaty and Truth.
We value the contributions of First Nations artists, creatives, artisans, practitioners and communities to the work we do.
Flying Arts is honoured to acknowledge the Governor of Queensland, Her Excellency the Honourable Dr Jeannette
Young AC PSM as our Patron. We also acknowledge Mr Tim Fairfax AC and Mrs Gina Fairfax AC as our Cultural Patrons.
Flying Arts is a not-for-profit organisation inspiring the appreciation, practice and professional development of the visual
and media arts as a lifetime interest or career throughout regional and remote Queensland.
Flying Arts is supported by the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland . Flying Arts is supported by the Tim
Fairfax Family Foundation and receives funds from Creative Partnerships Australia through the Australian Cultural Fund.
Flying Arts is supported by corporate partners and benefactors.
Flying Arts is the administrator in Queensland of the Regional Arts Fund (RAF), an Australian Government program
provided through Regional Arts Australia.
Front cover: Jan Strudwick, Sunday Morning - Ukraine (detail), 2022, Textile, 90 x 71 cm.
All photographs by Louis Lim.