DRAWING – A DEFINITION

Drawing, it is understood by most contemporary artists and art museum personnel can be intellectually and pragmatically broadened to embrace most art practices (including painting and performance), indeed to include many disciplines usually considered outside the realm of visual art (eg. cartography and writing). This in part is because the word ‘drawing’ does not specify a medium as – for example – the word ‘painting’ does.

Art as is commonly understood is ‘a broad church’ that embraces plurality.

Nevertheless for purposes of this exhibition a definition is here forwarded that specifies what deems a work of art to be a drawing. This stated is not what a drawing ‘could or can be’ but what defines it in generally recognised conventional terms.

Criteria for selection of an artwork as a drawing for the Camberwell Art (Drawing) Prize are as follows:

1. A drawing shall be deemed suitable for selection if it is on a paper based ground. A drawing on canvas will not be deemed to be a drawing in this context.
2. A three dimensional construction shall not be deemed to be a drawing.
3. A drawing over a photograph (digital or other) will not be considered a drawing.
4. The work of art may be in almost any dry medium (graphite, charcoal, pastel* or other) and it may also be in ink. A limited use of acrylic paint or watercolour may contribute to the work, but substantial use of these mediums would exclude the work from selection.
5. Mixed media work or collage may be suitable as long as the work is most substantially constructed without the use of appropriated imagery or material derived from other media (eg photographic, digital, print or paint media).

The selection panel and the judges have the right to determine suitability of entry based on these criteria.

*when a pastel is blended it is considered a painting; when a pastel is not blended it is considered a drawing.