Bald Archy Art Exhibition: Leura Blue Mountains

Created in 1994 as a spoof of that more serious competition, the Bald Archy Prize provides artists of all styles and standards with a genuine opportunity, ranging from the hilarious to the bizarrely vulgar, to create portrait paintings of humour, dark satire, light comedy or caricature. This year's winning painting was a portrait of legendary Australian actor, Geoffrey Rush, by Melbourne artist and caricaturist Simon Schneider, whose entry beat off a cavalcade of paintings of notorious politicians and sportsmen. Schneider’s work was one of two featuring the great Australian thespian, but infamous cricketers and politicians were without doubt the most favoured subjects for the canvases (though in cricketer Cameron Bancroft’s case, one of the entries was suitably painted on sandpaper). Politicians did get recognised in this year’s awards, with Brisbane artist Marty Steel’s hat-trick of acerbic depictions of political figures – Tony Abbott, Christopher Pyne and Bill Shorten – standing out in an avalanche of colourful political caricatures. Celebrating its 25th anniversary, the exhibition is being brought to the Blue Mountains' by Dr Jerry Schwartz, the owner of the Fairmont Resort and Leura Golf Course. Entry Cost All tickets $5 - Children free