BENDIGO.- Queensland born, NSW-based artist Laith McGregor has won the 2018 Paul Guest Prize for Drawing for the work, This Old Island, 2018.

Eminent National Gallery curator Roger Butler selected the work from over 350 entrants, in the fifth installment of this popular national event.

"This is an enigmatic work – simply pencil on paper," Roger said. “At a distance you see two eyes and a nose in a gigantic face that dominates the image. But as you get closer a Pacific Island scene appears. A man with net, huts, palm trees and mountains. The face disappears altogether – it is not overlaid on the drawing at all but it is formed by the blank unworked areas. It is not there, but always there.”

The Paul Guest Prize is a biennial event highlighting contemporary drawing practice in Australia. Initiated in 2010 by former Family Court Judge and arts patron, the Honourable Paul Guest QC, the prize encourages artists from across Australia to engage with the important medium of drawing and to create challenging and unique art works.

This year the prize received a record number of entrants – over 150 more than in 2016 – and the work of the 50 finalists are on display in the Paul Guest Prize for Drawing exhibition at Bendigo Art Gallery.

"This is a powerful, eclectic exhibition of land and cityscapes, fantasy, natural history and gender politics jostle together. Artists from China, Thailand, Vietnam, Fiji, Indonesia, England, Russia, Greece, Malaysia and Australia bring their cultural history to their works. The exhibition is united by the artists use of drawing in all its serious forms. Their distinctive mark making always appealing directly to the viewer," Roger said.

Laith McGregor will receive a non-acquisitive cash prize of $15,000 (increased from $12,000) and joins a list of winners that includes Tom Nicholson; Heather B Swann; Peter Grziwotz and Belinda Fox .

The Paul Guest Prize for Drawing exhibition, 30 June - 9 September 2018, at Bendigo Art Gallery.