Vic: Top drawing award for art lecturer

AAP General News (Australia)
04-04-2000
Vic: Top drawing award for art lecturer

MELBOURNE, April 4 AAP - An art lecturer has won one of Australia's top prizes for
drawing after sending in his entry form just in time.

Nick Mourtzakis, of Melbourne, was named today as the winner of the Dobell Prize for
Drawing for his self-portrait, Untitled Study.

"A friend had the forms and had decided not to enter but after seeing my latest drawings,
she persuaded me to enter - it was right on the closing date".

Mr Mourtzakis, a painting lecturer at Melbourne's RMIT University, acknowledges the
influences of his native Greek culture and parents.

"My parents are both dead, but I wish they could have shared the prize with me.

"They were both from a village culture, had minimal education and came from one of
the most rugged islands in the Aegean.

"When they got to Australia, they both worked in factories - my father would work 60
hours a week."

Mr Mourtzakis plans to use his $10,000 prize money to renovate the studio space attached
to his shopfront home in the inner Melbourne suburb of Collingwood.

The Dobell Prize is presented by the Sir William Dobell Art Foundation to encourage
excellence in drawing and draftsmanship.

AAP er/bdm

KEYWORD: DRAWING

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