Phil Hayes was awarded Second Prize at Brunswick Street Gallery for The Pet — an oil on canvas that quietly blends 1970s Australian nostalgia with the haunting presence of an extinct Thylacine.
The Pet is a hyper-realist oil on canvas (30x20cm) by Phil Hayes, awarded Second Prize at Brunswick Street Gallery by guest judge Myles Russell-Cook and the judging panel.
The painting depicts a male and female couple in 1970s clothing, standing beside a 1973 LJ Holden Torana on drought-scorched Australian land. This scene feels pulled straight from a family photograph. But look closer, and a Thylacine (commonly known as the Tasmanian Tiger) stands in the foreground, jaw open, seamlessly woven into this otherwise ordinary moment.
It's this quiet collision of the mundane and the uncanny that gives the work its power. There's warmth here, but also melancholy, a nod to loss and memory, set against a backdrop that evokes the colour palette of Australian realist Jeffrey Smart.
The Second Prize comes with a $1,000 non-acquisitive cash prize.
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