The story behind a striking video portrait that earned Gus Armstrong top gong at inaugural portrait prize in Mudgee

Gus Armstrong's artwork High waters on the shoulders of giants 2022 won the Mid-Western Region Best Overall Portrait Prize at the inaugural MAP Portrait Prize.

Gus said he was shocked at the win and actually missed the announcement.

"I was pretty blown away to be honest. I arrived at the gallery a bit late, someone at the door was like 'oh, you just won the whole thing, you better go chat to someone about it'," Gus said.

The piece, a 54-second looping video depicts Peter Swain, local Dabee elder, artist, poet and resident of Kandos.

With a long history as a river guide and watchman of the Cudgegong River, Peter lays witness to the force of the recent floods and wears the debris as a marker of the passage of time.

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"I just wanted to tell the story of Peter, that's the main thing in this and he's done so much for our community. Always has and always does and just does it from the goodness of his own soul and doesn't expect anything in return," Gus said.

"I made this piece particularly for the portrait prize but I have been thinking for a little while before that that I had to do something on the condition of the rivers at the moment and the flooding that's we've been experiencing.

"What I've been seeing around the place is al these piles of detritus and grass and reeds and sticks and things all building up on these points along the river along fences and up in trees and in these random spots. These things took on a life of their own and explained where the river was and just how much force really behind all this extra water.

"Pete and I had worked together on some things in the past and I know... he was a river guide for a while so it made sense to combine the two together to complete the story and make a work that talks about the current environmental situation and gives praise to Peter for being such an awesome person."

Gus said the choice to present the work as a video rather than a still image was to consciously bring an additional layer to the work that isn't typically present in a portrait, which is the element of time.

"It is kind of a new art form in a small way, especially digital video art. It's not that widely used in a portrait sense like this," Gus said.

"I thought it would showcase the movement of the river a lot more with the reeds and everything in the background. I've worked with photography before - but I'm moving into video a lot more as well. I think it commands - instead of filling up a 2D space on the wall, a video also fills in a 4D time space where you have to watch the whole thing to understand what it's about."

Close to 400 entries were received from across Australia, with 89 entries shortlisted for the final exhibition that is being held in conjunction with the Next Gen Portrait Prize, showcasing 100 submissions from local students.

Gallery Curator, Lizzy Galloway said the standard was incredibly high for a first-time art prize.

"The most encouraging part of the exhibition has been seeing the high standard of creativity that exists within our region," Ms Galloway said.

"Of the 89 finalists, more than half come from the Mid-Western Region, further reflecting the high calibre of professional and non-professional artists that reside here.

"Artists have answered the callout for this new portrait prize with many creating new works especially for this exhibition. Our visitors, particularly those locally, will recognise many characters from within our local community."

You can see Gus' award-winning work, along with many others at the Mudgee Arts Precinct until 12 March 2023.