As a mother of two young children, Phoebe Stone became an art-maker through a circuitous fashion. “I spent a decade as an interior designer before I was brave enough to pursue art as a career, which had really been my dream since I was a child,” she tells ArtsHub. “I am self-taught, but really, the way I see it, it is less teaching and more just doing and working intuitively and as I like.”
Her practice in oil pastels happened by chance after Stone bought some products at the local art store to create pictures for her daughter’s bedroom at the end of 2020.
“Drawing has always been my comfort zone in art, but I’ve long been drawn to the fluidity, texture and colour in paint. When I looked at the oil pastels, I thought they offered something in the middle. I was hooked. I managed to do one drawing for my daughter before I was hurriedly drawing for myself – mostly still lifes taken from photos on my last trip to Europe and vignettes from within my home. I couldn’t put the pastels down.
“For the first two years of my practice I worked on a freelance basis in design and around my work as a mother. I continued to obsessively draw still life motifs. I was quite lucky and gained a lot of interest in my work through Instagram, and it wasn’t long before I was showing work with a few galleries, including Michael Reid Northern Beaches, where I had my first gallery release of works.”
Three years later, Stone felt ready to pursue art full-time, with her first solo show at Gallery Raye (now Leighton Contemporary) at the end of 2022 in Noosa. Although it took a while for her to become convinced of her calling, Stone realised that she needed to make art. “The practice of making marks, translating imagery, emotion, connection onto a surface was an urge I could never quell. The act itself was, and continues to be, more important to me than the final work. It’s a meditation and a release I can’t live without. I make work for shows – I’ve now had four solos – and many group shows, and works for the pure joy or need of making them. Some of these I enter into prizes.”
Which leads us to the Remagine Art Prize, worth $5000, which Stone won in 2024 for her work Serene Sea.
Stone first heard about the prize on her Instagram feed, and when she discovered that it was all about sustainability, she realised she had a ready piece with which to enter.
The annual Remagine Art Prize, which began in 2009, is hosted by Hornsby Shire Council in partnership with Hornsby Art Society. Its total prize pool is currently worth $11,000. The Prize challenges artists to create works in response to society’s environmental crisis of waste and overconsumption.
Stone’s submission “was painted with oil sticks, with a few marks of oil pastel for good measure and it was of a large oil tanker I discovered on a bush walk around Sydney’s Berry Island Reserve, the Gadyan Track,” she explains.
“I couldn’t dismiss this great irony of an oil tanker being named Serene Sea when the oil it houses fuels overconsumption and the destruction of our environment. The contrast of its industrial nature being viewed on a calm bay through protected bushland further emphasised this and the image stayed with me as I returned to my studio and immediately had to paint it.”
She was thrilled to learn her painting had taken out top honours. “One large impact from winning has certainly been that it has shifted my gaze towards the environment and our natural landscape significantly. I find myself more and more compelled to draw and paint in this area, in a way that feels like a desire to hold on to the natural beauty around us, aware that we really are not doing enough to protect it and hold on to it for ours and future generations,” she says.
When asked what advice she would offer to prospective artists thinking about entering the Remagine Art Prize, Stone admits, “Entering awards can be daunting. I have had my fair share of rejections, but I think it’s especially important to have art out in the public forum, especially if it can inspire the community to consider individual and community impacts on the environment and make better choices on both levels.
“I would strongly encourage anyone who has a piece they have worked on that brings sustainability and our environment to the forefront to submit the piece, even if it is in a quiet way, whether it explores negative impacts or celebrates the beauty of what we have. I think the more voices and viewpoints on the subject the better!”
The Remagine Art Prize’s call for entries opens on 20 January 2025 and close 1 May 2025.
Exhibition dates: 13-29 June 2025, with the winner announced on 13 June.
