2017 Tollman Bouchard Finlayson Art Award

The 2017 Hermanus FynArts festival has been another huge success and has now drawn to a close with the final concert on Sunday 18th. What a wealth of openings, performances, workshops, tastings, shows, concerts and talks there were – one wishes one could attend them all.

The prize-giving and opening of the Tollman Bouchard Finlayson Art Award on Friday 9 June was even more crowded this year with nearly 100 people attending! Congratulations and sincere thanks to all the finalists who made the trek to Hermanus to be there – some even flying down from Pretoria.

This year there were 169 entrants who entered 237 works, an increase of 43% in entries over last year when 123 entrants entered 166 works, and this year the judges extended the number of finalists in the exhibition to 54.

For your interest, I attach some photos of the prize-giving and of the exhibition in the Bouchard Finlayson wine cellar – please do remember that it is a working wine cellar so there are no windows although the lighting on the artworks has been improved yet again. I have listed the 4 winners (see below) but it is impossible to identify all the works in this detailed way. Also included are some photos of the judging process itself plus the list of the 54 Finalists.

The winners were:
DSC6589A: 1ST prize with Paul Birchall

DSC6586A: 2nd prize by Drummond Murphy

DSC6587A: 2 Merits: by Stefan Blom and Desmond Smart