Thredbo Unveils Winning Artwork For 2020 Liftpass – Local Kids Get Creative For Design Competition

June 8th, 2020
The winning artwork from Sophie Harper, a year 3 student at Jindabyne Central School

 Mountainwatch | Press Release

THREDBO RESORT, NSW – June 8, 2020– A flamingo pink and hot yellow sky burn behind a gaily-coloured ribbon of gondolas. Lightly coloured eucalyptus trees sprout below petrol-hued mountains. When flipping over the ski pass this winter, these are a few of the innocent features you’ll find on the MyThredbo Card pass art. And the mini masterpiece isn’t by a big-name artist (yet). Rather this is the winner of the MyThredbo Card Art Competition, 8-year-old Sophie Harper from Jindabyne Central School.

For the past five years, the MyThredbo Card has featured commissioned artists who have a strong link to Thredbo, to showcase the depth of talent in the Snowy Mountains and the special relationship each has with the mountains.

Past artists on the lift pass card have included two-time Archibald prize finalist Zoe Young, canvas board creator Imants Tillers and the internationally successful Andrew ‘Grassi’ Kelaher. Brad Spalding was the inaugural artist, the former Thredbo Snow School Director creating a distinctive series of raincoat-clad ‘sou-wester’ people (winner of the Thredbo Art Prize in 1995).

 

Two-time Archibald Finalist Zoe Young’s pass art inspired by her memory of Dad, Butch, in the 80’s, “so gracefully carving up Dead Horse Gap as he led a group of us through the sparkling gums. Mum would be waiting with a champagne picnic for us all at the end of the adventure, it was always such a magic day”

 CELEBRATING COMMUNITY

So, Sophie in Year 3 is in excellent company. This year the artwork celebrates community, with local schoolchildren from Jindabyne Central School and Snowy Mountains Grammar School from Kindergarten to Year 6 invited to join the competition with the theme ‘gondola’.

Sophie, described as a ‘kind and helpful member of her class’ was thrilled to learn she has the successful entry in the MyThredbo Art Competition and her picture channeled her love of the Australian ski fields at Thredbo and her excitement at the building of the new gondola. A keen skier, she says she feels happy when being artistic and enjoys the fact that her art gives her ideas for writing in her journal at home.

And to showcase the rest of the other outstanding entries, Thredbo Resort will also display a colourful selection of the shortlisted entries on the roof of one lucky Gondola cabin – so don’t forget to look up!

 

The local kids from Jindabyne Central School and Snowy Mountains Grammar put their artistic hats on for the competition

ART, ART, EVERYWHERE

The 2020 artwork is the latest addition to thrill art enthusiasts. While the MyThredbo card takes artwork on-slope, off-slope art inspiration continues with a self-guided Art Walk featuring thirty art stops.

Along the wandering trail, art works include Descent by Robert Hague, a winner of The Director’s Prize for Sydney’s Sculpture by the Sea. Commissioned for Thredbo’s 50th anniversary, the bronze and weather steel piece features the imagined path of a skier carving down the mountain.

 

Brad Spalding’s, ‘sou-wester’ series

One of Brad Spalding’s ‘sou-westers’ (Enter the World of the Sou Wester) is featured in the Thredbo Alpine Hotel’s lobby, and by the adjacent small pond you’ll be surprised by a bronze nude (Mountain Dance by Thomas Bucich) inspired by the movement and gesture of Snow Gum trees.

The collection is ever evolving with new additions gracing the nooks and crannies of the resort.